Burning Black Ep1, Act 2: A Raven's Mourning Tears
by Digi-Dolphin
Summary: 2 of 5. When the stakes are driven higher, Timmy must learn to rely on his friends in new ways. Worst of all, new evidence is arising that Timmy's death may not have been the accident everyone had long believed it to be.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Because this is part of a set, it's best to start from the beginning; Episode 1, Act 1: Dimmsdale By Black Light. Otherwise, you'll get confused pretty fast. Sorry. OTL

* * *

Burning Black  
Act 2:  
A Raven's Mourning Tears

* * *

1

Master Control Spire

A computer screen flickered to life and Remial Buxaplenty's face filled its confines, an irritated expression coloring his face as he worked with something beyond the range of the web camera.

_ "Ugh, this stupid thing! Blasted contraption, doesn't even warn me properly when weather changes in this city. Utterly ridiculous... it doesn't snow in Dimmsdale this time of year!"_ he grumbled, _"Or at all! We're too far south for it!"_ He finished his growling and turned to face out the screen. _"Now, on to business. What is the status of the Dark Spires for this morning? Are they all fully operational, like you keep promising me but never actually deliver? Hmm?"_ he ordered. The figure settled back in a seat before the screen touched fingertips in slow, rhythmic order, eyes narrowed behind thick glasses.

"Master Control Spire is working perfectly. Spires One through Six are operating at eighty-five percent." he reported icily.

_ "And Spire Seven? What of it? Come, come, man, I haven't got all day! I have a matter of another highly irritating pest to dispose of!" _Remy declared in agitation, _"Chop, chop! Spire Seven, status report!" _The figure broke apart his hands almost sluggishly.

"Spire Seven... has been destroyed." he stated flatly.

_"**What?!**"_ the blonde millionaire teen shrieked in disbelief and rage, _"How could it have been destroyed?! You assured me the designs of those towers were infallible! Nothing should have been able to breach their walls!" _His face filled the screen in a fury. _"It was those two intruders again, wasn't it?! I am **not** paying you good money to build cheap toy towers that any ninny in a jumpsuit or hack job in an angel costume can just tumble over whenever they jolly well feel like it!"_

"_Three_ intruders." the figure corrected, unfazed by the boy's vehemence, "The angel and the phantom returned during the night, and they were joined by a boy about your age." A blue eye blinked out at him from the screen, then pulled back to reveal the full head and shoulders of the red-faced teen.

_ "A boy my age? Are you certain of this?" _he hissed. The figure turned in his seat and gazed up at a wall of monitors playing back pieces of video captured from what few of the anti-magic units weren't destroyed or stolen when the signal from the seventh Spire was discovered to be lost. The angel stood amidst an army of ground units, chanting as the earth quaked and sent everything shaking to pieces. The phantom had been specifically targeting nullifiers, keeping them far from the magic-casting angel. And then the third member of the strike force appeared, a teen with messy brown hair and determined blue eyes that struck a faintly familiar chord in the figure's memory. For a few of the recordings, he displayed nothing special beyond a trained agility for dodging and leaping over the traps. The feed from within the Spire during its final few minutes showed different.

"Yes. Brunet, blue eyes, Caucasian, wore dark clothes." the figure counted off facts, watching the boy on the screen toss out a flying sphere of light from his hand on one monitor, and lift his hand above himself as the angel and phantom huddled at his feet in another, the final moments of the tape blinded by a cave-in of twisted steel, concrete and granite. "He had very interesting techniques. Magic, I must assume, comparing it to what I've discerned from the angel, but his use of it was far different from the angel's techniques."

_ "Ugh, that brat! I knew he was up to something! He broke into my mansion twice and managed to survive every trap and safeguard I had installed!" _Remy fumed, _"Mr. Crocker, you had assured me that your nullifiers would reduce magic-using creatures to sniveling dogs in seconds; **why** is this twit still a pain in my ass?!"_

"The nullifiers do exactly that; nullify. They emit a wavelength of energy that disturbs the flow of magic a fairy uses and renders it useless. Continued exposure will begin affecting the health of the fairy until it eventually becomes little more than dust to be swept aside like garbage." the figure corrected bluntly, "This boy, though a magic-user, was human. Nullifiers would not affect him. The angel seemed to have taken damage from the first attack on Spire Seven; the robes he wore began emitting electrical sparks that caught him by surprise. I assume those robes were crafted with magic and they began failing in the presence of the nullification field."

_ "I don't want them bringing down the other Dark Spires before they are fully utilized to cover this city in the nullification field!" _the teenager spat out, _"Double the defenses on the remaining towers, put the servers to work overtime, do whatever it takes to get those Spires perfected!"_

"Don't bother. The Spire they destroyed collapsed on them before they could escape; the three of them have to be dead now. If not, then the two magic-users are dead and the phantom will have to retreat to wherever it is ghosts come from." Denzel Crocker sighed in boredom, "The Spire Server Control Systems will continue at their present pace in bringing the field to full power. Overtaxing them with additional workloads will only cause a systems malfunction." He narrowed his eyes again. "That takes money, _and time_, to repair." he added warningly. Remy clenched his teeth slightly.

_ "Ugh... Fine." _he conceded, _"I leave management of my Spires in your hands once more, but I have yet to hear what you intend to do about the one that was destroyed."_

"Once the lot has been cleared and the investigations into the early morning detonation and destruction of Spire Seven have concluded, a replacement Spire will be constructed in its place." the retired teacher replied, "As I had the forethought to fully automate the Spires, there was no other loss of life save for the intruders that sabotaged the tower. The investigation team will be told to keep their eyes open for their bodies for proper _disposal_, at your behest." Remy nodded.

_ "All right. That's an adequate plan. I'll queue the funds for the replacement Spire, but don't think this means you're getting off any easier. You have work to do on the improved schematics for the National Spires." _he reminded the older man coldly and smiled, teeth showing in the feral grin, _"My, my. Another young life lost; such a shame. Dimmsdale must be earning a reputation for having innocent children be lost to Death's embrace. I feel so terribly horrid for them, don't you?" _The figure in the seat growled hatefully as the blonde laughed at the personal stab, then signed off, vanishing from the screen.

* * *

Amid empty plates and the everyday sounds of people chattering on about menial topics at the only Denny's in Dimmsdale that allowed a ghost and an angel to join them for breakfast for the sheer fact that it was five a.m. and no one was in the mood to care, a group of young teens celebrated their recent victory in liberating an eighth of the city from a blanket of magical oppression. At the center of the jubilation, taking friendly punches to the shoulder from his friends, was Timmy Turner, more easily known as Timothy Neogene. After all, if it hadn't been for his unconventional use of mana, he, the angelic android called Caleb and the heroic ghost known as Danny Phantom would all have been buried, probably crushed, beneath several metric tons of concrete, steel and granite not more than a few city blocks away.

Tootie slurped up orange juice and squealed joyfully as she leaned into the brunet for another makeshift hug. She was the only one of Timmy's circle of fully human friends to know who he truly was, what he truly was, and possessed a fairy godparent herself. All the others, Chester McBadbat, A.J. Ibrahim, Sanjay, and Elmer, had no clue; they only knew Timmy as Timothy, the only one of the Populars to give any kind of damn about them, to actually bother to be their friend and share in the same unified idea... that Timmy Turner did not deserve to die four years ago.

What they did not share in was the reasoning of Timmy's death. Timmy himself had declared his death had just been an accident, and one caused by his own stupidity and carelessness. Chester and the gang sought a better truth, using A.J.'s laptop to calculate the real cause of Timmy's death. So far, no other truth was put forward to challenge the accidental death scenario.

The young, mistakenly-made immortal laughed sheepishly at a joke Chester cracked, all while Caleb looked faintly out of his element, sliding his untouched plate towards Danny Phantom, who promptly went invisible, passed a pair of shining white rings over himself and startled passer-bys with the sight of pancakes disappearing into thin air as he ate. It was a well-earned party of congratulations for the three of them, for all of them really.

Eight Dark Spires once stood among Dimmsdale's skyline, blanketing the city with an anti-magic field that nullified the power of all fairies within it to grant wishes, eventually going so far as to wither them away to dust. Not more than two hours ago, Timmy Turner led a blitz attack that decimated one of those Spires. Confidence bolstered by that, the brunet began to look at his quest to free his hometown of the ominous buildings with more hope. Perhaps, with his friends to support and help him, there really was a chance for him to be a hero.

"Man, you had us scared stiff!" Chester declared for what seemed like the thirtieth time since the group pulled him out of his dazed state at the bottom of a perfect crater, "That force field thing you did was sooo cool! Now I wish _I_ could learn magic, too!" Timmy grinned sheepishly.

"Ah, well, if you did that, then you'd have to worry about nullifiers too. You're better off as you are, 'cause then you can go places I can't go to help me out." he replied and blinked as Sanjay held out a piece of orange to him.

"You didn't eat your daily serving of fruit! Healthy diets are important!" the dark-skinned teen told him in his carefully worded English. He smiled hugely. "The human body is like a shiny American car! It cannot go without the high quality fuel!"

"No, thanks. I'm allergic to citrus." Timmy muttered, eyeing the orange warily. The other boy shrugged and popped it into his mouth, chewing cheerfully away.

"You too, huh? Man, do all guys named Timothy catch bad breaks when it comes to oranges?" Chester mused with a chuckle, "Hey, A.J., remember when we had that one day at school where the whole menu had oranges and stuff in it?" The African-American across from him nodded, grinning hugely as Timmy turned a slight shade of green.

"Timmy was totally freaked out! I never thought he'd _actually_ try to go the whole day without eating anything!" he laughed and shook his head, giving the brunet an apologetic shrug, "Sorry, but he had that same allergy too."

"It's a common allergy, isn't it?" Elmer asked, toying with the pink hat that seemed to be cursed to rest on his head. He looked up at the red-haired angel curiously. "You keep handing your food off to Danny Phantom. Not hungry?" he pointed out.

"I'm an android. Mechanical. I don't eat." Caleb sighed, "I can drink water, but that's all. And even then, I don't really need the water. It just lets me use it for crying."

"Ghosts don't need to eat, either. They're spirits from dead people." Tootie remarked, eyeing the invisible space where food continued vanishing. The rings passed again and Danny Phantom shimmered into view, fork still stuck in his mouth as he scowled at the young Goth. He pulled it free and gave a little snort of disdain.

"Ghosts eat! They just don't eat the same kinds of food you do." he corrected.

"But you are." Tootie pointed again, "You wolfed down three plates of pancakes and bacon."

"I _like_ human food. Ghost food sucks. No taste." Danny muttered and bit into another piece of bacon to punctuate it. Chester sat back with a contented sigh, patting his belly as he chewed on a toothpick.

"Welp, that'll do me for a while. So, now that we have a tower all torn to pieces, what's next?" he asked. The group looked at one another in realization. That's right; they only took out one Spire. There were still seven left in Dimmsdale. Timmy rubbed at his chin thoughtfully, sitting back in his seat as a pensive expression crossed his face.

"Well, we all need to recover from that last hit. I know I definitely need some time to rest; I drained a lot of mana from myself and from Caleb to make that shield." he remarked, "I'm just glad that he was able to convince the cooks here to use some of his recipes, or I'd just pass out again from mana depletion." He gazed out at the city and smiled. "But once I'm charged and ready, we'll hit the next Spire. There's one near the commercial district, not far from the Wall-to-Wall Mart. Since we know the blitz attack worked, we can use it again to attack that tower."

"Once we make some adjustments to the execution so we don't wind up having to huddle under another force field." Caleb added in, "As impressive as your shield was, Timothy, I wouldn't want to rely on it too heavily. I don't know the full extent of its potential." Timmy shrugged at it and looked out at the city again.

The shield... it wasn't the first time he used mana in a way that startled the android. A few minutes before it, he'd thrown out Fire mana in the form of several explosive flash bombs to clear an area near the entrance of the Spire. Caleb had gawked at him, and it was rare to have the android do anything expressive that was less than dignified. And long before that was a trick that Timmy developed just for fun, the Light orb, a sphere of Light mana that could follow him around or be tossed ahead to illuminate paths. The first time he showed it to Caleb, the poor angel nearly had a conniption; something about it being outside the laws of mana usage as dictated by yadda, yadda, old guys Timmy never heard of and somebody who wandered around for a few thousand years while wearing white spandex.

Short Attention Span Boy zoned out halfway through the fit.

Now he wondered about it. Sure those sudden spurts of creatively used mana saved his butt a couple of times, but really... how reliable were they? Caleb didn't trust them, but then Caleb never tried to do those things himself. Maybe it was different for him because he was a human and using modern thoughts to control mana?

Seriously, the man needed to figure out that force fields were a definite plus in any magic spell collection. Just look at Cousin Danny and his ecto-shield!

Time to go; a whole day for resting and recovering was ahead of him.

* * *

The next day, everyone was back to their usual routine, or pretty close to it. Caleb returned to New York to study up some more on the mysterious switch Cosmo had found in Remy's house. Danny headed back to Amity Park and resumed his hero duties there when not studying for exams in his first semester of community college. Chester and the 'Others' continued testing variables in A.J.'s simulation program, determined to find a reason for Timmy's death. Tootie headed over to the high school to eat her lunch with them and take another magic lesson.

Timmy was stuck with dealing with Remy.

"I don't believe this." Remy confronted him almost immediately after he stepped out of the building to pick out his lunch spot. Timmy halted and blinked at him in surprise. "I don't _believe_ this! You aren't supposed to even be...!" The blonde's cheeks puffed indignantly, red spots flushing on them.

"I'm not supposed to be what?" Timmy asked coolly, folding his arms over his chest as he waited for his rival to finish his personal fit, "Hurry it up and spit it out. I have friends waiting for me."

"You were supposed to be dead!" Remy hissed under his breath, "I was assured of it!" The brunet stepped back in shock, mind racing to understand the situation. Did he know? Had he found out somehow? How did Remy figure out the truth of his identity?! The blonde stepped forward, growling furiously. "That tower you destroyed... **my** tower...! It should have crushed you like a teacake!" he spat out, "How the hell did you survive?!" His eyes narrowed. "You used your magic, didn't you?! Those nullifiers should have stopped that!"

"Okay, so what part of 'rules don't apply to me' didn't you get?" Timmy shot back, relief flooding him for the moment. All right, so his true identity was still safe. But, how did Remy know what he had been doing that night? "Nullifiers? Please. Those things work on fairies, right? Do I _look_ like a fairy to you?" he went on, hoping to steer the conversation off. Crocker must have told him one of the Spires had been taken out, but how would any of them know that it fell with him still inside it?

"You wretch. Filthy, lying wretch." the blonde growled, "I'll be _waiting_ for the day your magic screws up and gets you killed. One more brat that won't be in my way!" With that, he spun in a huff and marched towards the Populars' table. Timmy watched him leave in confusion, fists held tightly at his side so as not to incite another school yard fight via physical or magical force. That was weird. 'One more brat'? Had someone else been bugging Remy before Timmy started in on his towers, and somehow got eliminated? A chilling shiver ran down his spine and he stiffened; he hadn't felt one of _those_ in a long while. What did it mean?

"This can't be good." he murmured worriedly, "Remy _can't_ mean that he got somebody killed. That's outright murder!" He looked aside at the pink and green squirrels that dashed under the bushes at first sight of the rich teen. "Wanda, Cosmo, didn't that sound creepy to you guys?" he asked.

"He might have been trying to intimidate you, Timmy. You **did** step back, after all." Wanda told him, crawling out from under the bushes, Cosmo following suit. "Let's get to the bench and meet with the Others. You have to finish teaching _Heal_ to Tootie and hand off the anti-magic trap detector to Sanjay." Timmy nodded and headed for the bench, halting a second time as Trixie Tang darted into his path, smiling.

"Timothy! Hi! It's so weird how you seem like you're avoiding us at the A-List table. Tad and Chad are starting to wonder if maybe you're really not cut out for the club." she remarked and fingered a red pendant that hung at her neck, a small gold crown logo emblazoned on it, "I've been working pretty hard, y'know, trying to find out how you died so that you can be avenged." Timmy groaned softly and shook his head.

"Trixie, there's nothing to find out about! My death was an accident! _An accident!_" he exclaimed in exasperation, "And you can't ask Apollo about me because he's not allowed to tell you." Trixie tapped her cheek thoughtfully, a perplexed expression on her face.

"Yeah, that's been kind of annoying. Why won't Fairy World and Da Rules let anyone know about you?" she asked, "Were you someone really important to them?" Timmy shook his head.

"No. Not important. They protect me because it protects them. My identity is all that stands between them and a global recall of all fairies." he replied in a low tone and picked up her hand, holding it between his own as he looked her straight in the eye, "So stop trying to find out who I am. The moment my secret is discovered by someone who could use it against me, against _all_ fairies, you will lose Apollo forever." The Asian stared at him in disbelief, eyes wide as a blush came over her face. "You don't want to lose your fairy, do you?" he questioned lightly, "Because that's what's gonna happen if you don't lay off." She continued staring at him, then smiled and quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"You're sweet, but really. You shouldn't underestimate me. I'll find out my way. Maybe I won't lose Apollo if I don't tell anyone else who you are." she purred, "Don't you worry, ghost boy; I'll have my cake and eat it too!" With that, she hurried away, laughing brightly as she made her way to the Populars' table. Timmy rubbed at his cheek, watching her bounce away with a stunned look.

"She's not giving up, is she?" he murmured aloud. The two squirrels watched blankly from near his feet, clutching acorns for show.

"Nope." Wanda replied and the brunet sighed in resignation. Danny had been right; this triangle he was stuck in sucked. Was this a family fate or something? He even inherited the nickname that Paulina girl constantly called his cousin! 'Ghost Boy'... he was an immortal, not a ghost! Pay attention to school, girl!

--

He finally made his way to the bench, wincing as he flopped onto the grass and saw Tootie already there. A dangerous look was in her eyes as she watched the popular girl sit at the table far across the yard. He waved a hand in front of her face to distract her, then looked up at the boys sitting on the bench and gathering around A.J. and his laptop. Sanjay gave him a nod and held out his hand for the detector. Timmy passed it on, cast _Revive_ on him, then waved as the teen grabbed his lunch sack and raced off, skateboard under one arm.

"Okay, what is so fascinating about A.J.'s laptop that everyone is fighting for position?" Timmy finally asked in exasperation, "You have a DVD player in there or something?"

"We're testing two new variables in the simulation." Chester remarked, "Dammit, that knocks him upside the head. Right result, wrong method." The blonde sat back in irritation. "It can't be this tough to figure it out!" The brunet sighed and shook his head, turning back to Tootie as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose again. She had a thoughtful expression on as they slid back down into place. Probably thinking about that same program herself.

"Why can't they just give it up?" he wondered aloud and held out his hands, "Okay, Tootie, now _Heal_ is a little more difficult than _First Aid_ because it draws more mana through you to heal larger wounds. Your focus has to be sharper." The young Goth nodded and closed her eyes, holding out her hands to mirror him. "Draw in the mana as if you were gathering it for _First Aid_."

The bracelets at Tootie's wrists began to glow as she followed his instructions. Wanda and Cosmo jumped from the grass to the bench for a better view, tilting their heads as the shimmering circle of light bloomed beneath the little girl.

"Good. Now, pull in more. You need more mana to pull off a stronger spell than _First Aid_." Timmy coached, slowly pulling his hands away from her. She frowned slightly, concentrating harder. "You should feel a sort of tingling in your fingers when you've collected enough." he added and propped his cheek onto one fist, pulling up a sphere of Earth mana from the ground and holding it over his free hand to toy with as he watched her. Really, it was almost like putty, this mana stuff. If he just focused on it one way or another, it shaped itself to match. The orb became a block, then a triangle, then a ring. It spun over his palm, flattened and folded into itself to become a discus and an idea popped into his head.

"I've got it. It's tingling." Tootie finally murmured, turning her gaze up to him, "Now what?"

"Now we need someone with an injury." Timmy remarked brightly, "Hey, Chester! Think fast!" The blonde jerked his head up and yelped as the disc of Earth mana slammed into his face. His hands flew up to cover a bleeding nose as Tootie squealed in shock. "Now, Tootie! Heal it!" the boy declared. Shutting her eyes again, she held out her hands towards the shrieking teen.

_"Light of mana! Heal these savage wounds! Heal!"_ she cried and a large burst of shimmering light surrounded Chester, vanishing into his body as he coughed and pulled his hands away. The nosebleed had stopped and any harm the disc had caused faded into nothingness. Tootie cracked open an eye to see her handiwork, then cheered at her success. "I did it! I healed Chester!" she exclaimed happily.

"You're gonna have to heal _him_ next!" Chester growled, diving at the brunet and send them both tumbling across the grass, "That freaking hurt, Timothy! You're dead, man!"

"I put my money on the one with the teeth!" Cosmo exclaimed cheerfully as he watched the two duking it out nearby. Wanda gave him an exasperated glare.

"Cosmo, they both have teeth! And who said you could gamble on a school yard fight?!" she scolded, tail fluffing up in irritation. Cosmo only smiled wider.

"I know! That way, no matter who loses, I win the jackpot!" he laughed and jumped up and down excitedly, "Yay! Jackpot, jackpot, jackpot!"

"Hey! Off!" Timmy yelled and finally shoved the blonde overhead, flipping the other teen onto his back, "Owww..." Both boys just stared up at the clouds until the rest of the group finally gathered around them. "What?" the brunet grumbled, "He started it. He didn't have to punch me _that_ hard!"

"Dude! You're the one who threw a lump of rock at my head for no reason!" Chester griped in response, sitting up and dusting off his jacket, "You deserved it!" Timmy lifted a hand and called a Light orb in place of the Earth lump, flattening it down into a discus as well.

"It helped me figure out something. I can actually use this stuff as a makeshift weapon or something. Like the discus." he remarked, "The Earth one did pretty good, but what about one made of Light?" He sat up and spun it over his hand, studying it with a thoughtful frown. "Or steel? If everything in the world has mana in it, then why not pull it from other Elements and objects?" he mused aloud, "Why stick with just the basic Elements of nature?"

Sanjay ran up to the group as they pulled the two teens to their feet, waving the detector over his head excitedly. Chester brushed dirt and grass from his clothes as Timmy gingerly poked at a bruised cheek and Tootie lectured him over using his friends for target practice. She cast her newest spell on him and stood back proudly while he muttered under his breath about whether or not it really was such a great idea to teach her _any_ spells. His attention returned to Sanjay as he held out the device to him, making his report on the Spire in the commercial district of Dimmsdale.

The Dark Spire was surrounded by deployment bays hidden in the parking lots that were built near its base. The detector picked up roughly the same number of traps as the previous tower, the ratio of nullifiers, destroyers and capture units counted as four to four to two. Timmy folded his arms over his chest, listening as Sanjay continued describing the area. The Spire was located fairly close to a few smaller shops and didn't have as large an empty area as the first Dark Spire, so precise plantings of the charges was definitely a must. This particular tower also was receiving shipments of something being brought in by truck. There were human drivers, but the unloading of containers as far as Sanjay could see was being done by automated forklifts.

"I wonder what they could be putting into the Spire? More parts to make more traps?" Timmy wondered aloud.

"Could be. If the first Spire was also a trap factory, then the other Spires must be working overtime to make up for the loss of the tower you destroyed." A.J. remarked, "So that means even more weakened defenses and an overtaxed mass manufacturing system until production returns to normal." Wanda and Cosmo scampered to their godchild and leaped magically onto his shoulders, perched there in their squirrel forms as they listened to the super-genius of the group. "The ratio is a little weird, though. They went heavy on the nullifiers this time." he added thoughtfully, "Does Danny Phantom have a ghost partner or ghost wife that can help him clear those?" He jumped as Timmy burst into laughter, falling back onto the grass as he held his sides. "I don't see the humor in it. What's the joke?" A.J. asked in confusion, blinking down at the brunet.

"That's just too hilarious!" Timmy stammered out and kicked at the air, laughing harder as the fairies in their disguises tumbled away in giggles, "Oooh! Ow! Man!" He managed to get himself under control and sat up, rubbing tears away. "Ask him when he gets here, okay? Ask him yourself. Good Lord, I can't wait to see that!" he hooted.

* * *

And ask he did. Once the angel and ghost were called back for the second Spire attack, A.J. mentioned the ratio of traps to the two of them and calmly asked Danny if he had a spectral spouse to aid in destroying the nullifiers surrounding the Dark Spire. Timmy laughed even harder as he watched his cousin's face turn bright red, green eyes shrinking down to pinpoints from the shock as his mouth dropped open. Caleb grinned and tried to hide it behind one hand, shaking his head slightly.

"I take it this means no?" A.J. asked, baffled by the reactions to what appeared to be a simple question. "Do ghosts even get married?"

"I told you someone would bring it up eventually." the angel remarked with a chuckle to the halfa standing by him. Danny shook himself off and folded his arms over his chest, cheeks still flushed with embarrassment.

"Ugh! Come on! Is it a crime to just be _steady_ with a girl? Do I have to just propose on the spot or something?! Is that how things worked in the _really_ old days?!" he hissed back.

"Actually, you should have had a child by now, so yeah, pretty much." Caleb remarked casually, smiling at the reddening face of the halfa, "It's not so bad. I think you'll make an excellent father when you get around to it." Timmy pounded his fists against the rooftop overlooking the lot where the Dark Spire stood, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

"Ghosts can have babies?" Tootie wondered aloud in surprise, "How does _that_ work?" Danny winced and looked slightly ill.

"Oh, gross! Don't mention that! I asked myself that same question when it came to Box Lunch... ugh!" He scowled and took to the air, folding his arms over his chest. "Great... that image is gonna be stuck with me all night..." he complained. Elmer peered at the tower through A.J.'s binoculars, watching the trucks as they pulled up to the open dock one by one.

"That's the third truck in the last hour. You might want to get this done sometime soon." he remarked to the group, "Who knows when the ratio might change?" That killed the laughter quickly as Timmy looked up at the group, blinking.

"Oh, yeah. We're here to destroy the tower. Oops." he murmured and stood up, dusting himself off. For his sake, he took mental inventory of his gear. His infiltration outfit was the same as always, an ensemble of darkly colored clothing that Tootie insisted made him look like a Goth punk. Strapped to his back via bandolier was a new staff to replace the Battle Staff that had been destroyed in the last attack. Caleb called it a Rune Staff, designed to help him channel mana easier through it for more potent spells. Clasped around his right forearm was the dull white armband that was the Adventurer's Map 3000, a device given to him by Cosmo and Wanda to act as both all-purpose map and a tracking unit. It was completely technological, as far as Timmy could see, and so far was immune to the nullifiers he was often exposed to in trap-hunting. Completing his outfit were the two blue-black gloves that he'd taken to wearing after his first foray into Oberon High School. His explanation for constantly wearing them was that they prevented him from leaving fingerprints on anything.

They quickly became as synonymous with Timothy Neogene as his pink hat was to him as Timmy Turner. Briefly, he wished he could have worn his normal outfit for the attack; he always felt more comfortable, more confident, when dressed in his classic pink shirt, jeans and pink hat. The dark colors of his new identity seemed to color his personality differently. Timmy didn't quite like it.

"You guys have the detector?" he finally asked the group of boys setting up watch on the rooftop. Chester held it up, the screen flashing with numerous small blips of light. "Okay. Cosmo, Wanda, stay here with them. Keep an eye on 'em all and..." he whispered the rest of his words to the fairies fluttering by him, "cover for Tootie if she needs to make wishes with Romi. I know your magic charges are getting low, but maybe if you alternate granting wishes and using magic you can make them last longer."

"We'll do our best, Timmy, just be careful in there." Wanda murmured, a Fenton Phone already clipped to her ear. She reached out and threaded her slight fingers through his hair. "You almost gave me a heart attack last time! So please, please be careful this time!" she whispered and smiled at him, "And also, remember what I said. Don't just run, fly."

"Whatever you say, Wanda." the brunet agreed with a sigh and gave both fairies a careful hug, "Be back in a bit." Tootie hugged him tightly once Cosmo and Wanda pulled away to take up positions by the other teens.

"Don't scare me again! Just get in, plant the bombs and get out!" she told him, nuzzling her cheek against his shirt, "I know you have the plan adjusted to make sure that last disaster doesn't happen again, but just be careful anyway!" Timmy pat her head cautiously.

"I'll be fine. Caleb preset the charges for five minutes this time." he assured her and freed himself from her arms to join the other two beings entering the tower with him. "Okay, guys. Ready?"

"We have the plan; let's just do it before I get bored with staring at that thing and Ghostly Wail it from the inside out." Danny remarked and yawned lazily. He wore the backpack filled with time bombs and had brought additional Fenton Phones for the group to use. He and A.J. each wore a set, while Caleb just copied its communication signal and told them he'd broadcast it through himself. A.J. sat near the edge of the supermarket roof, laptop set before him as he continued typing at it. Sanjay and Elmer both flanked him, gazing at the Spire with binoculars as they kept watch over the trucks. Chester maintained his watch on the anti-magic device detector, calling out numbers every now and then.

The ratio changed again, three to four to two.

Danny pulled Timmy into the air with him as Caleb took flight on his own red wings. One last cheerful wave before being turned invisible, and the young immortal was off to bring down another Spire.


	2. Chapter 2

2

"Okay, so how is it that Caleb is supposed to sneak in with us if he can't be affected by ghost powers?" Timmy asked his cousin as Danny made his way to the open doors in the side of the Spire.

"I dunno. He said just to let him handle it and I don't question him about stuff like that." the halfa returned with a careless shrug, "For all I know, he could be using Jedi mind tricks or something." They coasted closer to the hidden deployment bays, unconcerned with the hibernating traps that lined each one as they approached the target entry. After analyzing the last battle and the inner workings of several anti-magic units stolen from the battlefield, Caleb had deduced that the traps wouldn't fully activate unless they picked up the use of fairy magic or the Spire ordered it, and would immediately go into a full offensive if they so much as detected a trace of Cosmo's DNA anywhere nearby.

It seemed almost impossible to have technology that accurate, but apparently nothing was beyond the realm of the possible if one had the funds for it. Timmy sighed in exasperation and looked over his shoulder to see Caleb flying after them, a strange pair of silvery guns in his hands and the giant fork he used so often strapped to his back. Lens weapons; the guns he carried were made using a second ancient technology that was lost called Lens technology. They were basically lasers that used the biological energy of a once-living creature as a source of power, focused through glass discs that the energy converted into upon the creature's death.

He was still visible, so it didn't appear as though he was doing anything to hide himself from view. Maybe he was relying on something other than magic to shield himself? Timmy sighed again and shook his head, wondering what methods of manipulation the android had at his disposal.

_"Hey, guys? You said that the traps don't go off unless you attack the tower, use magic or Cosmo's DNA was around, right?"_ A.J.'s voice came over the Fenton Phones as they passed by the deployment hatches.

"Yeah. Why ask?" Timmy responded quizzically, blinking down at the panels of metal built into the lot.

_"Something keyed them off. The traps are mobilizing. You guys had better hurry up and get inside the building, or your stealth attack idea is seriously screwed."_ the teen replied and Timmy winced at his cousin's sharp curse as the hatch doors began lifting up, the sound of metal scraping concrete beginning to fill the air.

_"What the hell?! The traps are moving out?! I didn't use anything in the way of magic! My wings don't count and I'm borrowing Phantom's invisibility generator!"_ Caleb's voice yelled in alarm.

"Don't look at me! I haven't touched this stupid tower yet!" Danny snapped over the communicator and Timmy yelped in realization.

"They key off of Cosmo's DNA, right? I hugged him before we left; I must have gotten a few hairs from him onto my shirt! They've locked onto that, I bet!" he cried and held onto his cousin's arm tighter, "Can't you go any faster, Danny?! We gotta outrun those things!" The halfa didn't answer him, just accelerated and transformed his legs into a ghost tail to further cut down on air resistance.

_"Ratio's changed again. More destroyers are pulling back, additional nullifiers taking their place, increasing number of capture units."_ A.J. reported. The hatch doors opened completely and units flew out, activating their equipment as they raced around in search of a visual target.

_"Agh! Dammit, I'm pulling out! Mana systems are short-circuiting! There are too many nullifiers in the area!" _Caleb's voice griped, _"Danny, Timothy! It's up to you to finish the job! Plant the bombs, but accelerate the time! Timothy, you decide the countdown! It's all in your hands!"_

Timmy barely heard the instructions, head swimming and stomach churning at his exposure to numerous aerial nullifiers. He clung to his cousin, unsure whether they'd stay invisible if he threw up in mid-flight, and then the field was gone. Dizzy from the sudden change in environments, he uttered a soft moan and shut his eyes. The flight continued for a few seconds more, and then they touched down in a dark corner.

Ghost powers lifted, he sagged against a hard surface and pressed a hand to his face, hoping to contain the throbbing headache that threatened to shove his brain out through his eye sockets. Danny was angrily muttering and swearing under his breath, brushing roughly at the brunet's shirt.

"H-hey... what are... you doing?" Timmy managed to mumble and blinked the world back into proper focus. The headache was fading to a dull throb, tolerable, but still a sign of a field nearby.

"Brushing off the hairs. Did I get them all? His are the green ones, right?" Danny grumbled, picking at strands of hair and incinerating them with tiny sparks of ectoplasmic energy as he held them between his fingertips, "Might as well get the pink ones too." He sat back at last and exhaled slowly, calming himself down. "Feeling okay?" he asked.

"Could be better. I'm a little worried about Caleb, though. He's much slower in the air than you and he said his mana system was shorting out." Timmy murmured and tapped at the Fenton Phones, "Caleb? Can you hear me? You still in one piece?" There was static for a moment and he almost missed the reply.

_"Barely... Armor's... acting up... Archives..."_ the android called back brokenly and the signal vanished. Danny nodded slowly.

"Back to New York. He's going to need some serious repairs again." he sighed and peered around the stack of boxes he had taken them to shelter behind. "Weirdness. That Sanjay kid said they were bringing stuff here, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." Timmy murmured, getting up and crouching by the halfa. He pointed a finger at the forklifts as they bustled back and forth.

"He got it backwards. They're not unloading here; they're _offloading_. They're clearing this place out!" Danny whispered and shed the backpack, "So I'm guessing we'd better hurry and tear down this Spire before they finish packing." He opened the flap and both boys peered into the pouch. "We have six bombs on us, two for each of us. But now Caleb's gone, so it's three apiece instead." he went on and looked up at his younger cousin, "What's your plan, Timmy?"

**"Me?"** the brunet whispered back in confusion, "Why ask _me_? You've got more experience in this hero business!"

"This is _your_ fight, Cousin. I'm only here to provide backup when you need it." Danny sighed, "Why do you think I never come here as Danny Phantom unless **you** specifically call for my ghost half? This is _your_ city, _your_ home; **you** call the shots here." He grinned and poked at the brunet's nose. "You're the leader of this little team you brought together, Tim-Tim. Take charge; what are the new orders, Boss?" he added with a wink. Timmy blinked and sighed deprecatingly. Not easy. Hero business is never easy. He ran his fingers through his hair, thinking quickly.

"Okay, three bombs each then. You can phase through walls here, right?" he asked and the ghost placed his arm through the wall Timmy had leaned against earlier in demonstration.

"The interior walls, yes. But this tower also has that magic coating crap on the granite armor; I can't phase through the building walls to escape it, but I can move freely inside it." he replied, knocking on the interior of the granite wall before pulling his arm back free.

"Then you might as well take four bombs. You can place them faster than me." Timmy decided and sat back, arms folded as he thought harder, "The hatch doors are going to stay open until all of these boxes are moved out. We can escape through there when we're done." He nodded towards the bombs in his cousin's backpack. "We'll set the timers on them to three minutes again. I know it's less time than we planned for, but since it's just us two and you can fly pretty fast, then we can make up for it by meeting in the halls after we plant the bombs and just phasing our way back here."

"You'll have to call me over the Fenton Phones when you're done. Send out a signal of some kind to let me know where you are." the halfa replied and Timmy held up his hand, three tightly packed spheres of Fire mana glowing red-gold in his palm.

"I'll use _Bulla Scintillare_ in the hallways. Just follow the explosions." he grinned and pulled two bombs free of the pack. He watched his cousin slip on the backpack and give him a thumb's-up. "Okay, here we go!" Both teens darted out of the shadows and into the halls.

--

The layout was the same, the two points were the same. Timmy almost didn't need the map to tell him which halls to take. Just set down the bombs, call up his cousin to alert him to the activation of the timer, then key in the time. Three minutes and counting. He raced away from the device, retracing his steps as he held the three spheres of _Bulla Scintillare_ in his hand. He tossed one aside into a hall and waited, counting off seconds in his head. When Danny didn't appear at the end of his count, he raced on to the next junction.

He stopped at another set of halls and flung a second sphere down its way, watching it explode in a bright flash and send burn marks streaking along the floor and walls. Timmy stood there, counting seconds as he looked around himself. Something caught his eye and he froze, blinking at what appeared to be a shimmering circle of glass aimed right at him.

_"Okay, I heard that. Toss another one, I think I'm close to you."_ Danny called out over the Fenton Phones. Timmy tossed the third sphere and stepped closer to the disc to study it, frowning. No, not a disc. This was a lens. _Camera._

"Danny, we've got a problem." he returned over the communicator, "I think we're being watched."

_"By what?"_

"This place is covered in cameras. I just spotted this one staring at me." the young immortal reported, "You should be fine; you're a ghost."

_"Ah, not really. I'm a halfa; cameras can pick me up with normal lenses and I can show a reflection. If there are cameras in here, then they'll have picked me up if I haven't been invisible."_ his cousin returned. Timmy scowled into the lens and touched fingers to the communicator once more.

"Hey, you think they can pick up sound?"

_"Cameras? Nah. Not unless there's a mike somewhere near it."_

There was a sudden distant boom and Timmy listened with some chagrin as his cousin abruptly began muttering a colorful string of language into the Phones. It sounded bad, but that didn't mean it really _was_ bad. Especially since the phantom phased through the wall and dropped by him, returning to substantiality as he breathed hard.

"Finding you must have taken too long! That was the first bomb going off!" he exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. Timmy blinked at him, incredulous.

"What?! No way! These are timed bombs! One goes off, they all go off!" he cried, "Something must have found and detonated it early!" He hit the communicator for a quick update. "A.J.! What's the situation outside?!"

_"We heard an explosion and the traps are moving towards one side of the building. Wanda's freaking out and Cosmo looks like he wants to rain hell on those things. What's going on; aren't the bombs set? Shouldn't you be on your way out?"_ the teen replied hurriedly.

"We're on the way." Timmy reported and held out his hand, "Okay, Danny! Let's blow this anti-pop stand!" The halfa laughed, grabbing onto him.

"That's what I wanna hear, Timmy! We're so gone!" he declared and shot towards the wall with him in tow, phasing through the walls in a mad dash for the exit.

--

One early detonation didn't seem to cause much trouble, but even as the group watched from a safe distance while the Dark Spire crumbled in on itself, Timmy couldn't help but feel a strange anxiety. Cameras in the building, trucks carrying cartons out of the Spire. What was Crocker doing?

The others celebrated the fall of the tower. Danny merely gave him a pat on the shoulder, then spun into a cloud of white and pale green smoke that vanished into the night air. Ghostly teleportation; took him long enough to figure it out. Timmy managed a grin at it, knowing that, despite having the ability to move through reality with his ghost powers and pop up anywhere he wished, his cousin was still lazy enough to prefer using the teleporter system Caleb put together. To have him actually use his ghost powers like that was something of a treat to see.

"That was kinda easy, compared to last time." Tootie murmured, hanging back from the cheering boys to stand beside him. Wanda and Cosmo had calmed upon seeing him be flown out of the tower towards the meeting point. They now perched on his shoulders, munching on popcorn as they watched the final bits of the Dark Spire settle into another pile of rubble.

"Yeah, but... cameras..." Timmy sighed and shook his head slowly, "I don't like it. Was Crocker watching us when we took down the first Spire? Is that how Remy knew what I was doing?" Tootie looked up at him in surprise as A.J. stood and walked over to them, laptop in his arms.

"That's another eighth of the city freed, Timothy. Just six more Spires to go." he remarked brightly, "At this rate, Dimmsdale will recover its magic in a week or so." He checked his watch and whistled. "It's getting late and we have school. We should be heading home." he added and waved at the others, "Come on, guys! Let's catch the bus and get outta here!"

"See ya tomorrow." Timmy told him and gave a mock salute to the group of boys as they hurried to the fire escape and clambered down it. He looked down at Tootie, "So, heading home with Romi's help?" The dark-haired fairy poofed free of her disguise as Tootie's earring and floated by the young Goth. He gave the fairy a thoughtful look, taking in her shining wand. "Actually, I just got an idea." he mused, "Tootie, do you think Romi could help Wanda and Cosmo get their wands recharged? They can't get into Fairy World themselves to keep them in good condition." Romi squeaked at the idea as her godchild mulled it over.

"I'd love to say sure, but won't helping banned fairies get me and Romi into trouble with Jorgen?" she asked cautiously. Timmy shrugged uncertainly.

"Dunno. But if you could help them out, I'd really appreciate it." he murmured and smiled at her, "Well, guess I'll see you at lunch tomorrow." He looked up at the fairies that took to the air by him, "I wish the three of us were home." Wanda and Cosmo waved their wands in sync and they vanished in puffs of green and pink smoke. Tootie sighed dreamily and hugged herself.

"I hope we can help him. Can we figure out what to say to him when we get home?" she asked her fairy. Romi twirled her wand nervously.

"We'll talk about it, but it's a big risk we're taking if we decide to do the charging for them." she replied, "If we get caught, we could be separated forever."

"Okay, we'll figure something out. I wish we were home." Tootie murmured and the two of them disappeared in a puff of dark blue smoke.

* * *

Master Control Spire

Crocker watched the signal fade from the map of Dimmsdale projected over the huge monitor in his chamber with disinterest. Another Spire destroyed. He reached out and typed in a series of commands, calling up the last recorded minutes of video surveillance the Spire had captured before its destruction. As the feed began to collect itself for playback, he pressed a key on a speaker phone and waited.

_"Buxaplenty Investigations."_ a gruff voice answered curtly.

"Send another team of your investigators to the site of Spire Six for data collection. Bring back as many downed anti-magical devices as possible for analysis." Crocker ordered evenly, "We've had another incident." He hung up without waiting for a response, turning his chair to watch the monitors lighting up with various scenes and angles. For a few minutes, there was no activity on any of the monitors save for the trucks and the automated workers unloading crates of anti-magic traps and units for distribution to the other towers. Then, suddenly, two figures darted from behind a stack of cartons, vanishing into the hallways.

Crocker looked to the other feeds, scanning visually for another glimpse of the intruders. An eyebrow lifted as he spotted the phantom shooting through walls, a capsule of some kind in one arm. He looked oddly transparent, probably an effect of his ghostly ability to fly through solid objects. Another camera caught him returning to a solid form to set down the capsule by one of the weak points in the Spire structure. The retired teacher mused over it; a weakness in the tower design had been uncovered. These intruders were resourceful. It gave him a slight amount of pleasure in that; whoever these two were, they went through a lot of trouble to gain the knowledge to destroy the Spires. They had a complete and deliberate intent to destroy these specific towers.

Strange, weren't cameras supposed to be unable to catch ghosts on film or digital media? Yet this one was perfectly photogenic. Crocker watched the phantom turn slightly, fingers touching something clipped to one ear. He mouthed something in confusion, then twisted fluidly in the air and dove through another wall.

Another set of monitors were playing back feed that displayed the brunet from the second attack on the first Spire. The angel was nowhere to be seen. Had he been the only casualty of the first destruction? Crocker looked back at the previous entries from the first tower. Perhaps. He continued watching the monitors, studying the two that raced through the halls of his creation. The brunet was talking into a second earpiece, probably with the phantom. Some of the sequences didn't quite synch, though; maybe there was someone elsewhere who was speaking with them? Maybe that angel wasn't dead after all. Crocker tapped his fingers together slowly, observing the mysterious boy set the second bomb and call the ghost once more before setting the charge and running off.

He seemed to be the leader, this little one. And he was running down the halls with a little more confidence than his first foray. At one point, he stopped and threw something aside that caused a small explosion of smoke and bright light that blinded the feed for a moment. Then the boy just stood there, watching the halls. After ten to fifteen seconds of nothing, he ran on. Another junction, a repeat performance, but this time as he watched the hallways, his eyes passed directly across the camera's line of sight. He paused, turned his gaze sharply back at the lens. There was a puzzled expression on his face, something else caught his attention briefly, then he tossed a third item into the halls before returning to stare at the camera. He frowned, came closer to examine it, then touched fingers to the earpiece as he began speaking.

"Computer, slow playback, monitor ten." Crocker ordered and watched the brunet's mouth carefully, mirroring the words to read his speech. "'Danny, we've got a problem.'" So, now he had a name for the phantom. "Resume normal playback, monitor ten." the retired teacher commanded and sat back, watching a short conversation ensue. He glanced up at another monitor, watching one of several scout units make its way towards one of the planted capsules. After the destruction of the first Spire, Crocker had a small program sent to the servers of each remaining Spire. It delegated a few of the ground destroyer units to act as scouts for the main floor, searching for foreign objects and intruders. This one discovered the bomb and promptly tore into it, detonating the charge.

It was reflected in the phantom tumbling in surprise, teeth clenched as he spun through another wall, and in the brunet as he flinched and jerked aside, reacting as though something had slapped him. Then the phantom and brunet were sharing the same screen and the brunet was talking into the earpiece again. Crocker slowed the feed, played it back and mouthed the words.

"Hay Chay? A.J.? Ah, Mr. Ibrahim. One of Turner's little friends." he murmured in interest. This brunet, whoever he was, had actually managed to recruit one of the late Timmy Turner's childhood friends in this plan to destroy the Spires. Why? What did the two share in common? Was this a joint effort to bring down the towers in the name of the young boy?

Perhaps he was not the only one to have suspected the Turner child to have had fairy godparents. Obviously both brunet and phantom had some knowledge that the towers were designed to repel and/or nullify fairy magic, and the units were built to capture or destroy them. The corner of his mouth twitched into the barest of smiles. A worthy adversary, this boy who escaped certain death from the last Spire. Perhaps one fit to take the place of a rival who should not have fallen into the past.

Crocker returned his attention to the feed as the phantom began speaking almost jovially, hand extended to grab onto the brunet. He blinked, sat up with a frown.

"Computer, monitor ten, reverse three seconds and play frame by frame." he ordered sharply and the intruders' escape undid itself, the video returning to just before the ghost clasped hands with the brunet. And he watched carefully, mirroring the motions of his mouth as the one called Danny called out to the young teen. A name, he was speaking the boy's name. What was it? He rewound the feed, watched the mouth and mimicked the movements once more.

Tim-me.

Timme.

Timmy.

Crocker sat back, the smile now spreading fully over his face as the feed continued normally until the moment of destruction. Timmy. The boy's name was Timmy. Another one to take his place, a new Timmy to stand against him in this little rivalry over fairies and secrets and magic without limits.

How fitting.


	3. Chapter 3

3

.

.

Oberon High the next day wasn't fun; as a whole, the entire day seemed to be out to get Timmy for the events of the previous one. And it started before he could even get out the door to catch the bus.

He was putting together breakfast for himself, Wanda and Cosmo when the door to the stairs closet opened up and a small boy with platinum blonde hair and strange blue clothes entered the kitchen with a package in his hands. Timmy recognized him immediately as he set the plates down.

"Genis Sage? What are you doing here?" he asked, wiping his hands off on a towel. The boy set the package down on the table before the two fairies as they munched down on their breakfast.

"Message from Caleb. This is the following message." the android half-elf intoned and began a very strange playback in the angel's voice, _"I'm recording this through the mainframe computer of the Archives. Currently, the damage to my mana systems are too severe to allow me full control over my body. I'm sending the switch to you for your own analysis. The fingerprints I couldn't identify a couple of weeks ago finally got a match from the identity databases. They belong to one Denzel Q. Crocker of Dimmsdale, California._

_"This mystery of yours is getting deeper from what I can see. Until I am fully operational, don't count on much involvement from me in helping you destroy the remaining Spires. I hope your future endeavors are successful and that you continue practicing your magic techniques until I can return to mentoring you. Until then, may you continue to receive Martel's blessings."_

"End message." Genis finished, "Caleb is not angry with you, if you are thinking that he may be. However, he would greatly prefer not to be called into battle until you have achieved at least three level-two offensive spells in the basic Elements categories. In this package, you will find a disc to insert into A.J.'s laptop that contains instructions for learning various level-two spells, an upgrade card that will enable him to access Archive data for use only in aiding you with the destruction of the Spires, and the hardware switch found in Remial's mansion." With that, he bowed curtly and left the kitchen.

"Oookay." Timmy murmured, eyes wide with incomprehension, "I think he said that Caleb's out of commission and we're on our own." Wanda nodded and reached out to collect the brown paper-wrapped package.

"He also said that the adult fingerprints on the switch belonged to Crocker." she remarked and the brunet blinked in surprise. "So, this means that Crocker had the switch before he gave it to Remy. Only, why would he do that? What about this switch makes it valuable to Remy, but not to Crocker if Crocker was the one who bought it first?" the fairy mused. Timmy shrugged as he sat down, uncertain about the whole ordeal himself.

So the angel was out of battle until he was repaired, and wouldn't return to the field unless Timmy knew at least three spells that Caleb trusted. He sighed in exasperation; he could barely control _Fireball_, he went a little wild when it came to _Lightning_, he played with _Photon_ like it was a toy... The list could go on. When it came to magic, no matter how serious he tried to take it, Timmy always wound up playing with the spells and treating mana like his own personal, limitless supply of Play-doh. It drove Caleb nuts, it scared the crud out of Danny Phantom and it made most of Fairy World hang around the water cooler for more than two hours a day, whispering about the coming of the end of the world if Timmy Turner learned something akin to _Divine Judgment_and used it to roast marshmallows just because he didn't want to get up and move the damn stick closer to the fire.

"I hate my afterlife sometimes." he complained, poking at his eggs and watching the yolk run.

* * *

The school day itself was hell. Remy jumped him before he could even get up the steps to the building, fuming and raging and making such a scene that Timmy wondered briefly if it was all right to wish that the boy had a muzzle of his own. And a cage. A really small one.

For a minute, he entertained the idea of just standing there and letting the venting slide over him. After all, Remy was only talking about the second Spire going down and how he still shouldn't be alive and that he would find a way somehow, someday to off him or something, and it was all just babbling that went on and on. Timmy only sighed and rolled his eyes, bored with the whole deal.

"Look, if you want to keep this up, can it at least wait until _after_I get inside the school?" he asked dryly, "Maybe we can schedule this for after class. I charge per hour. Bring a checkbook." He pushed past the blonde as he shrieked in outrage, crying out in astonishment as he found his feet swept out from under him. The brunet crashed against the stone steps of the school entrance painfully, and twisted in time to see the other teen try to dive at him in blind rage. He lifted a leg, stopped the forward motion dead by planting his foot square in the blonde's chest, and coughed.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Timmy growled, ignoring the blonde still thrashing and waving his arms in attempts to reach his face, "What was this supposed to prove? That you've got nothing in the way of fighting style? What's the matter? Can't think of a wish that'll make me go away?"

"I wish...!" Remy hissed and a purple keychain dangling from his backpack swung into view, its gold crown logo shimmering in the morning light, "I wish...!"

"Spit it out!" Timmy snapped, "I **dare** you to try it! We're at a high school, idiot! One word from your mouth to finish that sentence and I win!" He shoved the boy back and got to his feet, grinning viciously. "See? I'm immune to the rules of life, and no fairy in the world has any power over me. I'm a freaking _god_here!" He spread his arms mockingly. "Wanna see? Wish for a weapon. See how far it it takes you before you get the idea that it doesn't work."

"I'll find a way! I will! I have _money_! I have _resources_! _I have connections!_" Remy shrieked as the brunet hurried up the steps to enter the building.

"And I have a **life**! You ever try getting one of **those**?" Timmy mocked and darted off.

Then there was Trixie, and even though she didn't go after him personally to pester him about clues to his identity, she did go pester A.J. and the Others for 'help'. They weren't amused and they dumped the heap of trouble on Timmy's head as soon as he arrived at the bench.

"She wants to see if she can hire my skills at locating information to find out about your past." A.J. pointed out flatly to the brunet as he lay face down in the grass out of frustration, exasperation and the need to escape them all somehow. "It's one thing to have a Popular care enough to be a friend to us; it's a whole other can of crap to have one start trying to throw money at us to get what they want from us."

Timmy mumbled something into the grass while the two fairies, back in squirrel form, perched on the back of the bench, watching A.J.'s simulation program with some interest. Chester reached out with his foot and jabbed at the brunet's side, then picked up his lunch sack to see what was inside. Wanda smacked him almost immediately with her wand.

"Put that back, Chester!" she lectured as he rubbed his head and winced.

"Okay, okay! Sheesh!" the blonde remarked, one eye shut from the smack, "Man, Timothy, your fairy acts like your mom!" Another smack.

"I don't have a mom." Timmy sighed depressingly, lifting himself from the ground as Tootie finally appeared on the campus grounds and headed their way. "I had to leave home when I died, so my mom and dad don't even know I was resurrected." He sighed again. "Great, now I'm gonna be homesick the rest of the day. Thanks a lot, Chester." The young Goth stopped by him and bent to whisper into his ear.

"We've been thinking it over, and Romi says that she'll give it a try. Come to my house after school and she'll try to sneak Cosmo and Wanda's wands into Fairy World." she murmured. Timmy nodded and gave her a grateful grin before turning back to the boys on the bench.

"All right, I have some news to... _will you guys quit smiling at me like that?_" he began and ended with an annoyed yell, "For the love of God! She's twelve! _Twelve!_Can't you people count?"

"Maybe you have a Lolita complex?" A.J. remarked, trying and failing at keeping a straight face.

"I don't even know what that is!" Timmy yelled, "Knock it off!" The laughter quieted down at last and he brought out the package from his backpack, opening it up. "I've got some bad news. Caleb is seriously out of the fight for now. There were a ton of nullifiers in the area last night and they screwed over his mana fuel system to the point that he can't even move to talk." he began with a sigh, "Probably a miracle that he got himself back to New York. Anyway, so until he's on his feet, we're not going to be able to take out any of the other Spires."

"That is not a good situation. The longer the enemy has to recuperate from the previous two attacks, the more likely they will find a way to retaliate against us." Sanjay remarked worriedly and shot the boy next to him a glare, "Who gave you permission to remove the sacred hat? Put it back on!"

"But, Sanjay...!"

"Put it on and smile like the many maidens of Shangri-la were offering themselves to you on golden platters!"

"Shangri-la doesn't _have_ maidens! It's **not**a real place!" A.J. pointed at the disc and adapter card as the argument went on beside him.

"What about those?" he asked and the brunet handed them off to the other teen.

"These are to help us out. The disc contains spells that I have to learn, otherwise Caleb's not gonna get back to fighting the traps with me." Timmy replied and gave the group a sheepish grin, "I'm actually only a beginner at this." He pointed at the card. "That will give your laptop the ability to access the Archives of the Twin Blades' main database. The information you can get to is only for use in helping me tear down the Spires. So, no snooping around at other files." A.J. gave the switch a puzzled look and Timmy held it up in frustration. "And this little piece of junk is a mystery I've been trying to figure out for a few weeks now. This switch was found in Remy's mansion and labeled a precious keepsake, but Crocker bought it first." He handed it to the super-genius and scowled at the piece of plastic. "It's cheap and broken, but there's nothing special I can see about it. Caleb said that it was made and sold here in Dimmsdale, and that when Remy got it, he was a kid. The fingerprints from Remy were made when he was young."

A.J. nodded slowly, examining the plastic and wires carefully. He poked gingerly at the switch mechanism, then blinked.

"It's burnt." he remarked and the group looked at him in confusion, "There are some small scorch marks on it, like it was connected to something that was overpowered. It melted a part of the mechanism." He tugged at the switch, demonstrating its refusal to budge. "See? It's permanently set to the 'off' position. Whatever this thing was connected to, it overloaded the mechanism when it was set to 'on' and it broke when it was turned 'off'."

"Crocker attached it to something that blew it out? What could have done it?" Timmy asked. A.J. eyed it, holding the switch up to the light.

"Well, it doesn't have to be something very powerful. He was really bad at hot-wiring jobs if he was rushing to do it and this looks like a rush job. Crocker might have intended it to do something small and it just blew because the wires were crossed." he remarked and yelped as the piece of plastic suddenly vanished from his fingers in a burst of purple smoke. "Hey! What the-?"

"Not us!" Wanda cried in alarm and looked around in a panic, "Where'd it go?" The group searched the area frantically, pausing as they spotted Remy standing not far from them, holding the switch in his grip. Timmy immediately ran to stand between him and the teens on the bench, spreading his arms intimidatingly and hoping his fairies had the forethought to hide themselves.

"Did that squirrel just yell?" Remy asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"That was me!" Tootie shouted out, "Now give us back that switch!"

"I wish your face was sealed so I wouldn't have to look at you, far less hear you, you little twit." Remy shot back and a second purple puff of smoke burst around the young Goth's head. When it cleared, she was clutching her throat with wide eyes, a solid band of metal completely covering her face, leaving only an airtight plexiglass plate with which she could look out of. The boys gawked at her as Timmy shot her a startled look. Tootie looked up at him desperately, her voice muffled as her hands began scrabbling around her head, searching for an edge to the mask. "That's better. Now, I don't know when you got your filthy hands on this, you little mongrel, but you shouldn't be playing with things that are none of your business." the blonde growled at the young immortal.

"She can't breathe!" Chester exclaimed in horror, shooting from the bench to her side, "That thing's locked her face up in some kind of iron mask without any airholes!"

"He wished for it! He's got a fairy?" A.J. cried in shock.

"Your secret has been exposed. A non-godchild has learned you have a fairy godparent." Timmy hissed angrily, "Any moment now, Jorgen will arrive and take your fairy from you. You've just lost your power!" Remy smiled coldly, holding up his backpack. The little keychain seemed to be struggling to get away as he opened the flap and pulled out a basket-ball-sized silver sphere adorned with mini-dishes. Timmy stared at it in horror. A nullifier! An aerial nullifier!

"I'd like to see him try." the boy millionaire purred as it simply sat there in his palm, a single red light in the black band encircling it just glowing menacingly. It suddenly flashed and the eye glowed even brighter, lifting itself up from his palm and activating. Remy blinked at the device in surprise as a voice boomed out into the air as sudden gale-force winds pummeled at the trees and forced the Others to huddle together to keep from being blown away. Wanda and Cosmo took shelter in the group of bodies, curled to prevent being seen. Tootie continued struggling for air as Chester held her close to keep her secured. Timmy raised his arms to shield himself as best he could while Remy only stood securely where he was, smiling after recovering from the shock of seeing the nullifier snap out of hibernation mode so suddenly and for no apparent reason.

_"Remy Buxaplenty! Your fairy godparent has been exposed! You will now **lose** your fairy!"_ the familiar accented voice of Jorgen Von Strangle blasted overhead as an explosion of fairy magic erupted nearby them.

"I think not." Remy remarked, watching the blast trigger the full activation of the aerial nullifier. The field spread out from the now hovering device instantaneously and the burst came apart in the dying winds.

_"Aarrgh! You can't escape punishment forever, puny human! One day, those pathetic toys will vanish and Fairy World will have you in court!"_ Jorgen raged as his magic was nullified, preventing him from appearing in the school yard. The winds faded to stillness and Remy smiled at his handiwork.

"See? I **do** have power here." he remarked.

Timmy only glimpsed part of the scene, doubled over in pain on the grass as he gasped for air. The nullifier field... it was too close! Not as potent as the hall of nullifiers he ran through, but still... unbearable! He could only imagine what it could be doing to Wanda and Cosmo, and Tootie and Romi! He managed to glare up at the blonde, his expression changing to shock as he saw the disguised Juandissimo dangle almost limply from the backpack. What was _wrong_ with this guy that he even put his own fairy in danger to prove his power?

"Hmm. I thought you said these things didn't work on you." Remy mused aloud, chuckling as he walked up to the brunet, "I thought you said you were human. Were you lying again, little mongrel? Are you a fairy in human disguise?" The sphere moved closer and the world just spun too far out of control for Timmy to bear continued eye contact. Not if he wanted to hold onto the contents of his stomach. The blonde laughed. "Look at the mighty god quivering in the face of my nullifier field!" he taunted and began kicking at him, "Sniveling, wretched, little street dog! I told you I have all the power here! Where are your fancy magic tricks now?"

"She's not breathing! Tootie! Wake up!" Chester cried in terror, "Timothy! She's not breathing!" Timmy forced his eyes open, grunting softly with each blow the laughing blonde above him made. The nullifier floated by him, exerting its influence over the yard. If it stayed this close any longer... Wanda, Cosmo and Romi...

Everything in the world is made with mana flowing through it. Nothing can escape the touch of mana; it is the very essence of life and energy and matter. Once a being is able to tap into it, harness it, manipulate it... anything could be possible. Mana was slightly different from fairy magic; it could be called and moved, but if it was used as a spell it was nullified. That slight difference... could it work?

"Timothy! Help Tootie!" Chester yelled out.

"**My** power affects the lives in this city now!" Remy howled victoriously, _"I am the new Heart of Dimmsdale!"_ Timmy heaved his leg out, sweeping Remy's feet out from under him as he struggled to get up. A.J., Sanjay, and Elmer pounced on the blonde in a fury, shrieking in a rage never before seen in the outcast group. With Remy distracted in a painful way, Timmy held his hands out to the nullifier, focusing on it through the feelings of having his insides torn to pieces. The mana it possessed... it had roots in the organic and the mineral... if he could touch it, feel it, find it...

It was flowing through the device, mana streaming at unheard of speeds to run the machinery, support the anti-gravity jets, generate the anti-magic field that was most probably killing the magical creatures around him. It flowed uncaringly, neutrally, until he dipped his fingers into it. Then it responded to his will, his command. And there was only one that he could think of in his quickly scattering mind.

_"Freosan!"_ he cried, mentally ordering the flow of mana to just stop dead in its tracks. Absolutely no movement of anything; even the very molecules that composed every piece of the device stopped their motions, held rigid by the will of the young immortal. And with the absence of movement came the absence of heat, and the nullifier's light winked out as it was completely frozen over. Like a silver ball that had been dipped in liquid nitrogen, the device simply dropped out of the air and shattered into shards of metal and silicon upon impacting the ground.

The sudden rush of magic's return nearly knocked the wind out of Timmy as he stumbled back in surprise at his new technique. The pile of boys clobbering Remy suddenly shifted and fell apart, the blonde teen having wished himself to safety. Chester looked up with a haunted face as Timmy crawled beside him, gazing down at the motionless girl and the three fairies that stretched out beside her, unconscious.

"She's not breathing." Chester whispered, "None of them are. Toots... she had a fairy, too." The brunet nodded shakily and held his hands over the young Goth, trying to pull together his focus. The iron plate had vanished from her face, revealing pale skin and blue-tinted lips.

_Heal_ couldn't fix this, _Cure _and the others, all they did was mend wounds, repair injuries. He needed to bring the breath back to her. He tried to gather Wind mana for it, but he couldn't hold it. The hit from the nullifier was still messing with him. He dropped his hands and shook his head.

"Can't... sorry..." Timmy gasped out, feeling faint himself. Stupid nullifier. Maybe he should have told the mana to put itself in overdrive. Melt the stupid piece of techno-crap. He could hear his name being called; he tried to look up, really, he did.

But the grass felt so much nicer.

* * *

He awoke to find A.J. tapping away at his laptop and Sanjay standing watch by Tootie, who sat in a small bed with Romi in her arms. The dark-haired fairy looked somewhat like a wilted flower, watching the group with huge, tear-filled eyes. Elmer sat in a chair between the bed where Tootie sat and the one Timmy lay in, swinging his legs back and forth slowly. Chester was talking with Genis, who stood impassively before the blonde with a clipboard tucked in one arm.

"Your concern, though appreciated, has no real merit in this decision." the platinum blonde half-elf remarked flatly, "This incident is being taken as a direct attack on Timothy Neogene. As such, the Hounder Organization is taking control of the situation and relocating him to a safer place of residence until upgrades to his first residence have been completed."

"What? English, please?" Timmy muttered, getting up and rubbing his head, "You're doing what with me? Where's Cosmo and Wanda?" Genis gave him a facsimile of a surprised look, then nodded and motioned towards the nearby door.

"If you will follow me, I'll take you to them." he remarked. Timmy jumped out of bed, held still for a moment as the world tilted, then reoriented itself, then quickly followed the small robot to the door. He stopped short of the door, looked back at the little Goth.

"Tootie? Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm okay, but everyone knows about Romi now." she whimpered, "Is she going to be taken away from me?" The brunet shook his head.

"I don't think Jorgen will be in too much of a hurry to come back to Dimmsdale to enforce Da Rules, not after Remy hit him with the nullification field. You and Romi should be fine." he assured her, "Romi, feeling okay?"

"I'm still a little weak, but your fairies..." Romi sniffled and that did it for him. Timmy raced through the door with Chester and A.J. tagging after him.

It was a small house that Timmy had never been in before. Dimmsdale's skyline was still outside the window, so he hadn't been moved outside the city. What exactly happened since he'd passed out in the school yard? Why was Genis back? Where was Remy? And the switch?

The small boy led them to another room and pointed at a table, an expression of annoyance on his face.

"Wanda will be unable to do much in the way of conjuring or flying for the next day or so." Genis began, "But we had to actually _buy_this place after Cosmo tore into it." Timmy stepped into the room, staring around himself in shock. Wallpaper shredded, windows shattered, furniture ripped to pieces and burning in small portions... the damage to that single room was unheard of. Even the overhead light wasn't spared, shattered and gouged out of the ceiling. The only way the room could be lit was to let sunlight in through the open windows. The last piece of still working furniture, the table on which the fairies stood, seemed an island amongst the chaos. Wanda sat there tiredly, her hair a mess as she gave her godchild a weak smile, cheek propped up on one arm. She fluttered her wings, but made no real attempt to take flight. She still held her wand, but her grip on it was loose, careless, as though if it were to slip from her fingers to the tabletop she wouldn't even bat an eye at it.

Cosmo stood far from her, back to the group of teens as he looked out the broken window. He tapped his own wand against his leg, and the Windcutter was held tightly in his other hand, the blade curving back and shimmering in the sunlight. If he heard the brunet enter the room, he didn't register it, didn't move to even acknowledge his presence.

"Wanda? How are you?" Timmy murmured, picking his way to the table to scoop her up and cradle her close, "I thought for sure the nullifier would..." He bit his lip, pushing the thought out of his mind as the pink-haired fairy sighed tiredly and tucked her head under his chin for comfort.

"Just a little tuckered out, Sport. Thanks for caring. I didn't see how you got rid of the nullifier, so you'll have to tell me about it later." she replied softly.

"What about Cosmo?" the brunet asked, looking towards his fairy godfather with a concerned expression. Had his stupid, happy little friend really done this to a whole room? Wanda turned slightly to watch her husband lift the wand and poof the Windcutter back to wherever he stored it.

"I don't know. The room was like this when I woke up and he looked like he was going to throw up. Then he just walked away and stared out the window. He's been like that ever since." she muttered. Timmy called out the other fairy's name and he jerked in surprise, turning to look at his godchild with a puzzled expression.

"Huh? What?" he asked in confusion, then broke into his usual goofy smile, "You're up! Yay! We can go have fun again!"

"Cosmo, did you tear up this room?" Timmy asked him seriously. The green-haired fairy blinked at him, then looked around as if seeing everything for the first time.

"Oh, this?" he questioned and shrugged, lowering his gaze, "I woke up and decided I hated _everything_." The group stared at him in shock. Cosmo then lifted his head and smiled brightly. "So I redecorated! I'm only half-done; I need doilies!" he finished cheerfully.

"I sense hidden hostility." A.J. muttered and jumped as the fairy shot him a glare, "Whoa!" Timmy reached out and rubbed his head with a shaky grin.

"Okay, okay. Don't worry about it. Can you fly? How's your magic?" he asked and Cosmo jumped from the table, poofing into a human-sized version of himself midway through the leap. He folded his arms behind his head and sighed.

"Nope. No flying, just walking. Walking's boring!" he declared, startling A.J. and Chester with how strangely normal he looked as an adult, still dressed in his white shirt, black pants and shoes, and black necktie. The wings, crown and wand had vanished, but the little Reverse Doll he'd found on Derris-Kharlan more than a month ago remained hanging on a cord around his neck.

"Oh, that's good. You can take care of the phone call then." Genis remarked, writing out notes on the clipboard, "Oberon High staff called the Archives as the emergency number, but they want to speak with Timothy's 'parents'. You can stand in as his father for the meeting and let the officials know that everything is perfectly fine."

"Dude, I don't think that's a good idea." Chester told him in shock, "That guy? Act like Timothy's dad?"

"I'm pretty sure Hell hasn't frozen over yet." A.J. grumbled. Genis tapped the clipboard.

"It makes no difference. The Archive has already taken care of the other little matters associated with the incident at Oberon High, but more stubborn officials are asking for a parental figure. Caleb is still undergoing repairs." the boy told them flatly, "This house will be Timothy's base of operations for the next few days. Also, the accountants in charge of Timothy's funds have noticed they have yet to be fully utilized. I'm going to be staying on as his manager. He wished to play the role of a popular, rich teenager. He needs to fill the role in all aspects."

"What does that mean?" Timmy yelled in frustration as Cosmo stood by him, whistling while flipping the end of his tie up.

"We're tearing down your old house and replacing it with a suitable mansion; restocking your wardrobe with the latest fashions from overseas and New York styles, as well as updating your stealth gear; and moving your lunchtime meeting spot from the campus to an ivory tower stationed one lot over." Genis reported, "We've already commandeered the lot and begun construction of the tower under Hounder Organization funds. Also, your friends will need to be funded to fit the roles of allies to the A-List student role you've acquired." Chester and A.J. blinked at him in confusion. Genis merely flipped through the sheets on his clipboard. "Chester McBadbat, an account under your father's name has been established and filled with a stipend that will help you fulfill your role nicely. The mobile home you live in is to be replaced with an actual home, or if you wish, a larger mobile home. Which do you prefer?"

"I kinda like my house with wheels." Chester squeaked in a daze. Genis picked up a phone, tapped a key and held it to his ear.

"Nix the house; get the biggest mobile home you can find. If you can't find one, build one. Buy up an eighteen-wheeler if you have to." the boy ordered bluntly and clapped the phone closed, "Your wardrobe will also be updated to match. Dental records state that those braces of yours must remain until you hit thirty years of age, so we can't do anything about that. We will, however, replace the wire with mythril to prevent future sabotage by that dentist, Dr. Bender." The teenage boys looked at each other, shrugging in confusion.

"A.J. Ibrahim, your home is already of suitable size, but your lab is appallingly low-tech." Genis went on and motioned to the group as he left the room. They hurried after him as he returned to the first room to recollect the other teens. "Your laboratory will be updated with the latest technology provided by the companies and corporations under the Archives' control, and a second, equally enhanced lab will be built within the Ivory Tower for your use. Wardrobe will be updated as needed."

Elmer and Sanjay looked up at Genis as he entered the room. He crooked a finger at the three teens inside and led the whole gang of teens and fairies out to the main room, still sifting through papers.

"Sanjay, your stepfather refuses to convert your 'bunker' home to a mansion, so the best we can do is offer a wardrobe enhancement and additional military power to bolster his armaments. You now have a fortress in place of a bunker." the half-elf reported. Sanjay blinked in confusion.

"Many thanks, small child whom I have never seen before and still wonder over how you possess this power. Why am I receiving such gifts?" he asked.

"You must play the role of wealthy student to help cover Timothy's facade. If the wall of protection is not there, another incident like this one will surely occur, with greater intent and destructive force." Genis pointed out, "Caleb recognizes Timothy as a Hero in infancy; the full power of the Archives of the Twin Blades and the Hounder Organization is being brought forth to ensure he fulfills his potential." He scribbled onto the sheets again. "Elmer, your home is to be replaced with a suitably larger house, and your wardrobe is to be updated. Also, we are now circulating the story of that hat you wear; soon, it will be the fashion to wear faded hats."

"Not like that one." Timmy growled, pointing at the pink hat. Genis flipped out the phone and hit another key.

"Faded pink hats banned from those who don't have direct connection to Timothy. Ensure it, enforce it." the boy ordered and clapped it closed. "Tootie, your home is due for an overhaul, but your older sister has been holding it back for some time. We'll take charge of the remodeling and place a stipend in an account for you. We're calling in a professional to help you achieve full Goth potential. Her name is Sam Manson; try not to demolish the malls."

"Um... thank you?" Tootie answered vacantly, still lost in what was happening.

"Hey, what's going on? We're going to get money and stuff just for being Timothy's friends? Isn't that kind of a bribe?" Elmer pointed out irritably.

"No. You are receiving this to help ensure three points of safety for Timothy; one, to maintain the illusion of a popular New York teenager in Dimmsdale, California; two, to reduce the amount of attention being called to him for choosing to associate himself with the social outcasts rather than the upper-class elites; and three, to provide a barrier between him and Remial Buxaplenty, who is increasing aggressive behavior towards Timothy in public arenas where his ability to fight back tends to be compromised." Genis told the group bluntly and opened the door to the house, allowing the group to step out and watch in awe as trucks and workers, demolition machines and heavy construction vehicles swarmed the streets on their way to designated homes.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a world where your power is backed by the might of the Hounder Organization and the untouchable foundation of the Archives of the Twin Blades." Genis finished with a hint of pride, "Welcome... to the S-List."


	4. Chapter 4

4

Anyone who worked for the Hounder Organization did their job fast and right the first time. Hounder was a philanthropist with a flair for throwing money at people as though he didn't care to have it around. In all essence, this was the truth. Caleb was sick of having excessive amounts of wealth slowing him down, so anything he could pick up on that could take money off of him was a welcome charity case.

In the case of Timothy Neogene, charity was an understatement. The mansion that took the place of his house, the residential upgrades for all of his friends, the Ivory Tower that baffled the school faculty... everything was done in roughly four days. It helped that a majority of the workers sneaking in to do construction were members of Caleb's android team.

With such drastic changes being made, Timmy sought peace elsewhere, fed up with the noise and the constant reports being made to him on what was happening with one project or another. Genis was a cute kid-robot-thing, but one more report from him and Timmy was going to snap. So, with the thought of keeping at least one android in working order, he fled the safe house and made his way to the cemetery, plopping himself down by his grave marker.

"This is chaos." he sighed tiredly, plucking up a stuffed bear and toying with its shiny plastic nose. Wanda sat on his knee, watching him and shrugging.

"It's for the best, in the end. Isn't it?" she asked softly. Despite his aversion to being separated from his pink-haired wife, Cosmo was spending the day confronting school officials, acting as Timothy's 'father' in heading off any chances of investigation into the bizarre school yard fight that caused two young teens to pass out and left one of the richest teens in Dimmsdale covered in bruises and black eyes.

"At this rate I'll end up forgetting who I was before I fell off that stupid jungle gym." the boy muttered and managed a grin as he gave the bear a tentative squeeze and it squeaked back at him. And it was that unnerving feeling that drove him to skirt the Neogene wardrobe and return to his classic outfit. Short-sleeved pink shirt, normal pair of blue jeans and sneakers, the familiar pink hat that he kept since his death; it was comfortable and comforting. He picked up another toy, clicking the mechanism to activate the lights and sounds of a plastic toy train. He'd only been there for a few hours and his quiet musings were often interrupted by his scrambling for a hiding place each time someone dropped by to 'visit'. Some mourners he knew already but surprised him; Doug Dimmadome and his son, Dale; Catman as played by Adam West (who still creeped him out to some extent), and then there were those that he couldn't figure out. Random people, the majority of which he'd never met, brought gifts and flowers, spent time telling younger siblings and small children about what they knew of the Heart of Dimmsdale.

The train blew a little whistle and he blinked back to alertness, unaware that he'd drifted off in thought again. He rubbed away tears, gave a small sigh and set the train down, looking back at the pile once again.

"What happens to all the stuff that piles up on my grave after a while?" Timmy asked his godmother, plucking a flower from one of the bouquets and twirling it in his fingers, "They don't just gather it up and trash it, do they?" Wanda shrugged again. "How's your magic?"

"Almost gone. I couldn't grant a wish even if I tried, and Cosmo's using up what's left of his supply trying to cover up that fight at Oberon." she sighed. Timmy winced at her words.

"We really should find Tootie and Romi. They said they'd help you and Cosmo get your wands recharged." he murmured and set the flower aside, "Should we go look for them?" The fairy began to nod, then managed a glance past him before gasping and hurling herself away from him into the pile of plush toys. "Wanda?!" the brunet exclaimed in surprise, twisting to pull her out... and freezing in place at the sight of anther visitor to his grave.

She was blonde, hair tied in a ponytail and eternally dressed as a cheerleader. Often titled the second most popular girl in the school, she was what Cousin Danny's friend, Tucker, once labeled girls like her 'satellites', the friend who orbited around the most popular girl in an effort to gain equal favor in the eyes of the public, but doomed to always be second best. She just stood there, staring at him, her face torn between erupting in a rage that sent many running for the mountains and a joy that would rival Tootie's elation at seeing his return.

This was Veronica, the 'crazy one' that harbored a near-violent crush on him despite social differences.

Looks like she's picked one.

"Who the hell are you and how dare you dress up like that here of all places?!" she snapped at him, stomping up the hill towards the tombstone.

"Oh crud. Uh, be back for ya later, Wanda!" Timmy murmured and shot away from his grave, knowing just from experience that the blonde would chase him. He wouldn't have to look back to know that, given half a chance, she'd be breathing down his neck and ready to tear him a new hole in the head. All he had to do was make sure she didn't have _any_ fraction of a chance to get close, find a really good place to hide, and pray to whoever was paying attention that she figured she just imagined it all.

_"Heeee-**yah**!"_ her voice screeched into the afternoon air and Timmy had only a split second for a good view of the grass before he found his face planted alongside the little green blades, one dainty foot-shape jammed into his back securely, "Hah! And they said my own special brand of Cheerleader Fu would never amount to anything! Like, screw you, Mr. Counselor! You just got totally taken down by my patented Jump, Three-Quarter Twirl and a Half-Split attack!" He lifted his head, spat out a mouthful of grass and groaned in resignation. Why was he doomed to be discovered by people who didn't need to know he was alive? "Like, okay! Obviously you don't know the rules of this town." Veronica declared threateningly, poking the tip of her shoe into a space between his shoulder blades, "So listen up, 'cause you only get one warning and the next time you screw up, you are so totally gonna get kicked outta town! This is Dimmsdale and in Dimmsdale, we all pay homage to our Heart, who is totally unfairly dead and junk. And, like, rule numero uno here is nobody else can ever be called Timmy, 'cause that was his name and it's, like, sacred now."

"I kinda got that idea already." Timmy sighed, managing to pick himself up enough to prop one cheek against a fist.

"The next rule is a little weird but it's still totally enforced 'cause Timmy himself made it that way. Only that loser kid, Elmer, is allowed to wear Timmy's pink hat as stand-in Timmy!" Veronica went on, tapping her foot on his back as she counted off rules. "Then there's the no-other-pink-hats-can-be-brought-into-this-town rule, and the no-one-can-wear-the-same-pink-outfit-he-used-to-wear rule 'cause on him it looked totally hot and on anyone else it's so gay."

"How can anyone consider a ten-year-old 'hot'?" the brunet grumbled and shot a glare back at the girl, "That's kinda sick, don't you think? Just wearing pink automatically labels me as 'gay'? That's not fair!"

"Hey, _you_ broke the rules, pal! No one but Timmy T. Turner of Dimmsdale, California can wear pink in this town and _not_ be called gay for it!" the blonde shot back and lifted her foot off of him at last, "Now, what else? Oh, yeah! You can't, like, destroy or damage anything that was put up in his name, 'cause that's gonna piss off the whole town. You gotta be real nice to his parents, 'cause they're still sad about the whole thing." Timmy sat up, rubbing his back as he scowled at the list being told to him. "There was one more... oh, yeah! You gotta observe the moment of silence on the day of his death, 'cause if you make a sound and someone hears it, they totally reserve the right to gouge out a new hole in your ass for it!"

"That's a little harsh, isn't it?" the young immortal questioned, wincing at the image of someone being mauled for breaking any of the rules, "Just for one kid?" Veronica nodded, dusting off her baby pink skirt, flecking off bits of earth from the creases.

"He wasn't just some kid, y'know. He's..." she began and Timmy growled at her next choice of words.

"You call me the Heart of Dimmsdale one more time and _I'll_ rip a new hole in you!" he hissed, "I'm sick of it!" The blonde turned on him in renewed fury.

"_You're_ not the Heart of Dimmsdale! You're just some freak job who dressed up like him to break people's hearts!" she snapped and blinked at him, "Like, oh my God, you totally look just like Timmy!" Her head tilted to one side. "If he actually grew up and junk. Huh, you actually look kinda cute in pink."

"Not gay?"

"Not gay."

"Not gay! Hoo ya!" Timmy cheered, "Hah! I win!" He grinned and the blonde blinked again.

"Geez, you even have his buck teeth, don'tcha?" Veronica pointed out and Timmy immediately clapped his hands over his mouth, startled. The dental work should have taken care of that! But then again, his front teeth were too much a part of him to give up entirely. He'd told Caleb not to disguise them too well; in retrospect, maybe that wasn't the best idea. "Same hair, same eyes, same teeth, look good in pink..." she mused softly, narrowing her eyes at him, "No way..."

"Gotta go!" Timmy yelped and began scrambling away. She stuck her leg out and tangled his own, tripping him up and trapping one leg beneath her.

"Oh, no, you don't, pal! You are so not getting away from the Number One Cheerleader Fu Master in Dimmsdale!" Veronica declared, ignoring the yelp of pain from her recaptured audience.

"Urgh. There's a couple hundred bucks in my wallet. If I give that to you, will you leave me alone?" Timmy complained.

"No! Well, I did have my eye on that cute little purse from Saks Fifth Avenue online... hey!" she yelled, "Don't distract me! I see it all clearly now!" She began to laugh, a strangely unsettling giggling that hinted at underlying madness. "I get it! I knew it! They called me crazy, but I knew it all along! You can't kill the Heart of Dimmsdale! Nothing can hurt the one I loved!" she crowed, "I knew it! I **knew** it!" Timmy clawed at the grass, trying to pull himself away from the certified nut that held him by one leg.

"_Why_ do I always get the crazy ones?!" he whimpered and choked at the sudden shift from trapped leg to tightened hold around his neck.

"They called me crazy, but I knew it! I totally knew you couldn't be killed, Timmy! No one ever _really_ hurts the losers in school!" Veronica gushed joyfully, holding him close, "You were just faking it the whole time! You faked it for four whole years, like, oh my God, didn't that just bore the hell out of you? But you're here! You're here, you're home, like, did you build some muscle while you were gone, and you're all in one piece and still totally gorgeous in pink!"

Danny was right; he _didn't_ need air.

But Timmy definitely needed to get away from this nutcase. He squirmed and twisted, trying to get loose, all while Veronica babbled on about psychic feelings and tarot readings that proved she was right. Somewhere among all the chatter Ms. Cleo got involved, and then there was a fortune cookie that told her to wait for her angel. Wanda was still buried in toys and she didn't have the magic to grant a wish. He was going to have to get out of this one on his own.

"I still have that threat-mantic letter you sent me! I still love that last line! 'My love for you burns with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns!'" the blonde prattled on, clutching at him so tightly it hurt, "I wanted to have it put on a statue of you, but no one wanted to make it for me! I had to make it myself, out of gum you chewed and lollipop sticks you threw away..."

Oh, sick...!

He pointed his fingers at a nearby vase of flowers, murmured an apology for what he was about to do, and focused through the incessant chatter and the digging of her nails into his clothes and skin.

_"Release the light! Photon!"_ he cried and the vase broke apart in an explosion of light that startled Veronica enough to loosen her hold. That was all Timmy needed to jerk himself free and race away from her.

"Noo! Timmy! Come back here! You haven't told me how you tricked the town! Get back here!" the blonde screamed, "I can make you love me, y'know! I'm Trixie! That's what you want, right?! It's me! _I'm Trixie!_"

Timmy spent a full hour stuck in a tree until she finally left the cemetery, laughing softly to herself. He dropped out of it, headed back to the grave and picked apart the pile of stuffed animals to find Wanda curled up and posing as a toy herself. With a sigh of relief, he picked her up and made his own way out of the cemetery.

"Not as relaxing as you thought it would be, huh, Sport?" Wanda murmured with a slight grin.

"Nope." her godchild returned with a chuckle, "Looks like I'll have to watch my back from now on as both Timmy Turner and Timothy Neogene, at least until I can make a wish to make her forget what happened here."

--

Tootie asked right away what was wrong when he arrived on her doorstep a couple of hours later. The brunet gave her a strange look. What tipped her off on something like that? Veronica babbled on about 'knowing' he was alive, but this was different. The little Goth didn't say anything about it, just looked up at him, tilted her head in puzzled concern, and asked if he was all right.

He decided that this was a bit better.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired." Timmy replied with a grin, "I brought Cosmo and Wanda's wands. Do you think you can get them charged?" Tootie opened the apartment door and let him in. Her family had been relocated to an all-expense paid hotel room until the renovations to their house were completed. It annoyed her older sister, Victoria, to no end, but the fact that she was getting free stuff and her status was going to be boosted made up for it. She was currently out at the site, scoping out potential boyfriends among the workers.

"My parents are asleep in the next room, so we'll be okay here." Tootie remarked, leading him into the main room of the apartment, "Romi? It's safe!" A blue-black cat leaped from the floor onto the sofa, then poofed into the form of the dark-haired fairy. She took flight and politely bowed in greeting.

"I've been to Fairy World in search of a way to recharge Wanda and Cosmo's wands without rousing suspicion, and I think I've found a way." she told the boy nervously, "The safe zones extend from here to the edge of the city, right? I'll take the wands to Fairy World, charge them with my own power, then recharge my wand at several stations. This way, no one knows Wanda and Cosmo are getting the power. They'll just think it's me."

"Oh, I get it! Then, because Fairy World can't connect directly to Dimmsdale, you'll poof back outside the city, then back here!" Timmy exclaimed in understanding, "Cool!" He held out the wands and Romi accepted them, tucking them both into one of the large sleeves of her dress.

"The bridge is currently one way only." she explained, "I can transport myself to Fairy World from Dimmsdale, but I can't do it in reverse." She waved a hand and shrugged. "Apparently, according to the rumors I heard in Fairy World, Jorgen set up a mass evacuation order for Dimmsdale's fairy godparent squadron. Every fairy in this city should have received a notice to get out before they're killed from the nullification field."

"But you haven't evacuated, and neither has Apollo." Timmy pointed out, shaking his head at Tootie's questioning look, "Sorry, Tootie, I can't tell you about him. Rules."

"Since when did **you** start following Da Rules?" the young Goth muttered petulantly, flopping down onto the sofa. Timmy shrugged.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time, whenever that was." he replied, "So, why no evacuation?"

"Because it's a fairy godparent's duty to ensure the happiness and well-being of their assigned godchild!" Romi answered fiercely, "How can we abandon the kids of Dimmsdale in a time when they're so miserable, we're the only ones who stand between them and suicide?!" The brunet stared at her in shock, then looked down at the girl on the couch. "Tootie made one attempt, early in her days as a Goth. I got there just in time to have her make a wish to live and be whole." The fairy sighed and shook her head slowly. "As far as I can remember, that was the last time I ever went back to Fairy World on my own for any kind of duty. Wherever Tootie goes, I go. Wherever I go, I take Tootie with me. Her happiness is my only goal now." She held her wand out before her, a determined look on her face. "You know now, deep inside, that this city's hopes and dreams were tied to your life. When it was lost, the other children gave up any hopes and dreams they possessed to join you in the other world. Fairies everywhere have been working to revive them, to keep them alive, knowing that you lived and knowing that they could never reveal you to help those kids cope."

"What can I say? Sorry isn't enough for that." the young immortal sighed, "You're all risking your lives to save kids who want nothing more than to cast themselves into Death's arms. How can I repay that?"

"You're already doing it. Tear down the field that stops us from helping our godchildren. Tear down those Spires that threaten to end our lives and the light of magic in Dimmsdale." the fairy returned, "Just as Cosmo and Wanda are your fairy godparents, protecting and caring for and loving you, be this city's godparent, and let your love and kindness for the ones who live here be the power that keeps them alive." She poofed out of sight with those final words, a burst of dark blue smoke that wafted away to nothing as she headed off for Fairy World.

* * *

Fluffy clouds, brightly colored buildings in strange shapes, paths made of playing cards, gold and silver, the smell of magic so thick one could almost taste it; this was Fairy World, the realm of all fairies. Romi made her way among the hustle and bustle of everyday fairy business towards the first charging station. She was shaking already, trying very hard not to look as though she were doing something that could possibly separate her from Tootie. But this was the first time in ages she'd come back to her homeland alone, and she had to put her trust in Timothy to keep Tootie safe.

He would. His presence alone would ensure Tootie would keep her life and her sanity.

Wanda's wand needed charging badly. It already drained away a large portion of her own wand's power and still was nowhere near the minimum limit for granting wishes. Standing outside the door to the magic charging station, she took a deep breath to try to steady herself, then headed inside.

_"Just act normally. Pretend that it's just your wand that got screwed over and needs a boost in power."_ She smiled at the attendant as he set her wand within the charge machine, watched the dials spin and the lights wink on and off, then gave a shaky thanks to the other fairy as she fluttered out the door. Ducking into an alley, she brought out Wanda's wand again and let it float as she aimed her own at it. The magical blast filled another portion of the gauge and she eyed it carefully. Still not enough. She'd have to keep visiting stations, maybe four more to get Wanda a full charge. Then more to fill Cosmo's wand. How were the two getting along without their wands? Without the ability to fly and conjure up whatever their godchild desired?

Next station, just smile and hand over the wand, chatter on brightly about random things. Oh, the Tooth Fairy was still keeping her radar open for Chip Skylark III. Poor guy; without Timmy around, he simply vanished from the spotlight to keep his teeth, and his sanity, protected. That made Skip Sparkypants happy for all of fifteen minutes. Said the bum atmosphere of Dimmsdale was too uncool for him and he headed for brighter towns after getting a cold audience for his debut concert.

Romi returned to the alley when the charging was done and repeated the transfer, studying the gauge a second time. Getting there. She sighed and tucked it back into her sleeve, making her way to the next station.

By the time Wanda's wand was fully charged, Romi had gotten the hang of the charge ladder system. It was easier now that she learned no one was bothering to check her out or was stalking her. Heaven forbid that really happened! She remained bright and happy as she moved along the series, cheered by the idea that, with one last trip at another station, Cosmo's wand would be filled and she could give herself a full charge before heading back to Dimmsdale.

"That was easier than I thought it would be!" she giggled and halted with a startled yelp as Jorgen Von Strangle, the toughest fairy in Fairy World, blocked her path, scowling down at her with huge wand in hand. She squeaked and stared at the staff-like creation, a wand that only Jorgen had the strength to wield. It did everything a normal wand could, but 'manlier' and with a near-destructive bent to it. "Um, uh, good evening, Mr. Von Strangle!" she stammered out with a grin, "Nice evening! Earth sure looks pretty tonight, doesn't it?"

"You're blocking my way, puny little girly fairy!" the older man barked at her and she fluttered aside. "You look familiar." Jorgen added in a suspicious tone, glaring down at her with narrowed eyes, "You are... Andromeda. Correct?"

"Yes, sir." Romi murmured shakily.

"You were assigned a godchild in Dimmsdale, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is this admission of your evacuation?" the muscled fairy demanded. Romi shook her head.

"No, sir. I'm just here to recharge my wand and then I'm heading back to Tootie. Lots of wishes to grant, now that the fairy traps in her neighborhood were cleared out." she replied as cheerfully as she could, "I'd better be on my way! My regards to the Tooth Fairy and her continued search; I hope she finds Chip Skylark soon!" She waved and flew off as fast as her wings could carry her, stopping only to be sure he was far away. Breathing a sigh of relief, she fluttered into an alley and poured the last charge into Cosmo's wand, tucking it back into her sleeve when she was done. She made her way to the final station.

Another act, another smile, and Romi was floating out the door of the station, pleased with her trip to Fairy World. She paused in surprise at a plain brown box left on the sidewalk just outside the station. Looking around in confusion, she stepped closer to it, then blinked at the top of the box. 'CW'; just two initials, written in elegant handwriting. What was this for? 'C' and 'W', she remembered seeing those initials on Cosmo and Wanda's bedroom door of Timothy's former house. Was this a package for Cosmo and Wanda? From who?

Checking to be sure no one was watching, Romi picked up the box and shoved it into her other sleeve, then waved her wand to poof back down to Earth.

* * *

"She's taking an awfully long time." Timmy mused aloud, watching the clock worriedly. He was getting nervous; funny, being in one place for a long while didn't make him so antsy before. Maybe a side affect of living two lives? Or a life and a death? He should really ask Cosmo and Wanda to explain this whole immortality thing to him. Tootie picked at her plate, toying with her slice of pizza as he took a deep, calming breath, exhaling slowly.

"Things are going to be really different now, huh?" she murmured, glancing up at him quickly before returning to her food, "We're all going to be turned into the new Populars to keep you safe from Remy. That means that Trixie is going to want to chase you even more." She managed a smile. "I bet you're going to like that; you've always liked her, even when you were just a little kid and you were alive, really alive." The brunet shrugged lazily, eyes still on the clock ticking away on the wall. Tootie pushed her glasses up on her nose, letting them slide down on their own. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked again.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Really." he sighed and pulled his hat down, fingering the bill of the pink cap, "Just thinking about what I would be doing now if I hadn't died that day."

"Probably homework." Tootie replied with a grin, "It's nice to see you're wearing your old outfit. It really feels like it's you." She jumped at his sudden harsh sigh.

"That's another thing that's bugging me. I think I'm starting to lose touch of who I really am. I know I'm Timmy Turner, and I still answer to it, but I have a hard time feeling like it's really me." he grumbled, "And when I'm dressed up in all that black and dark colors, going around and telling people I'm Timothy Neogene, I feel like... like I'm not part of this world." He tossed the hat aside and shrugged, "Like I don't belong here. I feel wrong. It's not who I am, but it's who I have to be to keep from being discovered."

"So people don't carry you off to do experiments and junk?" Tootie asked, collecting the hat and running her fingers along the fabric. It was old, somewhat faded, and it had the soft, beaten feel of well-worn fabric that remained in one piece only through a miracle of God, or two lovable fairies.

"That's actually starting to sound good right about now. At least I'll belong _somewhere_." Timmy muttered, stretching out on the sofa and glaring up at the ceiling, "Two names, two identities, two personalities... who am I really? Am I Timothy Neogene, the rich kid from New York City who can never die, or am I Timmy Turner, an average kid who got himself killed out of stupidity and just managed to escape the Grim Reaper?"

"I think that's something you have to find out on your own." the young Goth murmured and looked up in alarm as the door suddenly swung open. Victoria stood there in her dark green business suit, a scowl on her face.

"Not a single phone number, bunch of lousy..." she began growling and blinked at the boy staring at her from the couch, "Huh? Pink shirt? _You!_" Tootie could just about swear that the pupils of her older sister's eyes converted themselves into tiny flaming skulls. _"You little rat! Don't you know it's against the law to dress up like that here?!"_ Timmy gave a disdainful huff and got to his feet.

"I should have known. First Veronica, now you. Fine, go ahead. Lay it on me already." he told her dully, "Just make it quick. I have things to do."

"You never got around to answering my questions, and now I catch you alone with my sister, dressing up like that twerp!" the older woman snapped at him, "You better not have done anything to her, or I'll turn you into a permanent choir boy!" Tootie blinked at her in shock, then turned a frightened gaze on the young immortal. He didn't even flinch at the threat, just stood there with one arm akimbo, looking up at her impassively. "I heard from the guys at the sites that you're the one behind all this upgrading and crap! What's the deal?!" Victoria demanded, "What are you doing about the anti-magic crap that's screwing over the city?! You were the one who told me that junk was going to doom Dimmsdale to death because it would ruin all the 'special' kids! Why aren't you doing something about it like you said you would?!"

"I've destroyed two towers responsible for it, but there are six more to go. You're all getting upgrades because Tootie is helping me bring down those towers and she's acting as a point of defense for me." Timmy returned evenly, "And never mind why I'm dressed like this. Just know that I'm doing this for that stupid Heart you all seem to covet so much."

_"Don't call him stupid!"_ the carrot-top shrieked, ignoring Tootie's yells as she lunged forward and grabbed the brunet by the neck, shaking him, "You take that back, you little orphan bastard!"

"Vicky! Stop it!" the little Goth yelled louder, "He's not doing anything bad! Let him go!" The older woman made no motions to listen to her, but she did yelp suddenly and jump back, waving her hands in surprise.

"You shocked me!" she exclaimed incredulously. Timmy coughed once, rubbing his throat gingerly.

"You tried to strangle me first!" he snapped back and winced in pain, "Ow." Tootie jumped from her seat on the couch and hurried up to him, holding up one hand so both he and Victoria could see the bracelets on her wrists glowing.

"Look, Vicky! We're working together to save Dimmsdale! This is what he taught me!" she declared, the circle of light blooming at her feet, _"Light of mana! Heal these savage wounds! Heal!"_

Her older sister watched in stunned silence as the shimmering cloud of healing magic surrounded the boy and vanished into him. Timmy pulled his hand away and gave her a faintly grateful smile before turning a stern glare at the older woman. She still stared at Tootie in disbelief, looking at him only when he called her name.

"I told you that some of the kids here were special." Timmy murmured, folding his arms over his chest, "I can't be killed, but I can be injured to the point that I can't use magic on myself. Tootie has learned a few of my healing spells to help me in case that ever happens." Victoria swallowed, frowned, then grinned.

"How much can I charge for healing? Hmm, miracle healing tends to bring in a lot of profits..." she mused aloud, a devilish gleam in her eyes.

"Vicky!" Tootie scolded, "You can't use magic and mana like that! It's mean!" The older woman shrugged, that slightly cruel smile that showed off her teeth still spread on her face.

"Money is money, twerp." she remarked, "And enough with that kiddie name. It's Victoria, remember? Grown-up name for getting grown-up moolah."

"You're already getting all the money you could ever want from the Hounder Organization!" Timmy yelled angrily, "How much more do you want?! Selfish and cruel, why can't I ever fix that part of you that was once sweet and gentle?!" The two girls stared at him in shock. "Why can't I use magic to make you who you once were?! _I wish that evil part of you found another host!_"

No one moved, no one said a word, and the only sound in the apartment was the brunet's haggard breathing. He finally sighed and collapsed back onto the sofa, one hand running through his hair as he closed his eyes.

"Forget it. I negate the wish I wished." he murmured, "Heck, for all I know, the stupid bug would jump down my throat if it was actually granted. After all, what's more powerful in this world than an immortal magic-user?" Victoria blinked at him, tilted her head in confusion, then looked down at her sister again. She lifted an eyebrow and frowned, narrowing her eyes.

"Where did you get that hat?" she growled. Tootie blinked up at her, puzzled, then gasped as she realized that she still had Timmy's pink hat gripped in one hand. She quickly put it behind her back.

"Um, what hat?" she stammered lamely.

"Give it up, Tootie. Just give it back to me." the brunet sighed in resignation from his seat. He didn't bother opening his eyes, just held out a hand for the cap.

"But...!"

"I **said**, give me back my hat. If Icky Vicky wants to hurl a battle axe at me for wearing it, that's her deal, not mine."

"Hey! Don't call me that, you stupid little...!" the carrot-top snarled as Tootie sighed and passed the pink hat along. Timmy collected it and pulled it on, finally looking up at the older woman with a bored expression. And for Victoria, it all suddenly seemed to hit home. The strange familiarity she felt from him since that first meeting she had with him in the cemetery one night, over a month ago. The reason why Timothy Neogene wanted the nickname of Timmy, knew so much about the dead Turner and tried all he could to deny it. "Twerp?" she whispered in shock, staring at him.

"Hello, _Victoria_." Timmy returned and smiled, the two front teeth that were so familiar to the town displayed for her to see, "I didn't think you'd be so worried that night, when that thug emptied his whole gun into me. That's still the first time I've ever been shot. Lately, I just have to worry about little things, like buildings falling on me and junk." Victoria took a step back, face pale.

"No way. You're dead! The funeral... I was there... we all were there! I saw you in that coffin! You were buried!" she cried, still stepping backwards. Timmy shrugged, folding his hands behind his head.

"A fake. Something whipped up by a friend of mine to cover up the fact that I wasn't there to be buried." he remarked, "I'm an immortal, Victoria; you already saw that I can't be killed. That's because I'm already dead."

"You're a zombie?"

"Ugh! No! That's why I have healing spells; so I don't end up turning into one of _those_!" the brunet griped and made a face, "Blech!" His face cleared and he gave another little shrug. "So, now you know I'm really Timmy Turner. Here's the problem. I can either let you keep the knowledge, as long as you promise not to reveal it to anyone, or..." Victoria glared at him, tapping her foot as she planted her fists on her hips.

"Or what, twerp?!" she demanded.

"Or I'll 'magic' with your head and erase your memories of this whole conversation." Timmy returned coldly, looking up at his former babysitter's disbelieving expression, "You don't get it, do you? I've been in Death's grip; no one escapes Death unchanged. I'm not exactly the same Timmy Turner I used to be. You don't scare me anymore." Tootie whimpered and he gave her a look to quiet her. Not now, he didn't need distractions now. Victoria grumbled irritably to herself, tapping her foot again as she glowered at him. Again, there was that air of tension, but it didn't last as long. She gave a harsh sigh and threw up her hands in defeat.

"Oh, fine! Be that way, little bastard! I'll keep my mouth shut, but you better not get my sister hurt in this whole 'save the city' thing!" she declared in frustration, "'Cause I'll figure out a way to kill an immortal if _anything_ happens to her!" Timmy grinned at her.

"That's the Vicky I know! Deal!" he laughed. Tootie brightened and pumped one fist into the air.

"Yeah! We're all okay on this!" she cheered and looked up at her sister, "Vicky, I know how you can help me stay safe when I go to help Timmy! Teach me how to use your swords and stuff!" The older woman blinked at her in surprise, then looked surprisingly touched, startling Timmy for the first time since he entered the apartment. "The way you smashed up that trap in my room long ago, that was awesome! I want to know how you do it!" the young Goth went on cheerfully. Victoria laughed and gave her a thumb's-up sign.

"Okay! Let Big Sis show you how to maim a piece of junk!" she agreed and headed out of the room, "We've got time before I need to crash for my beauty sleep, so lemme grab a couple of practice swords for ya!" Timmy watched her leave and turned back to Tootie in surprise.

"What are you planning?" he asked in confusion. The young Goth only grinned, pushing her glasses up her nose and letting them slide down again.

"I'll tell you if you kiss me!" she teased and laughed at his baffled expression. A burst of dark blue smoke erupted by them and both teens looked up at Romi as she fluttered in the air.

"Whew! That's was kinda close!" she remarked, "I had to time my entrance just right!" She dug into her sleeve and held out the wands to Timmy. "They're fully charged now. The process was easy to do, so I can do it again if you ever need another recharge." Timmy accepted the wands and murmured a thanks, relief crossing over his face. Romi dug around in her sleeve again and produced a brown box. "Also, I think this is for Cosmo and Wanda. I found it outside the last charging station, but it doesn't say who it's from." she added in concern. Timmy took the box in his hands, puzzled as he studied the elegant handwriting.

"I don't recognize it." he murmured and the dark-haired fairy shrugged helplessly before poofing back into the guise of a cat on the sofa. "Thanks, Romi. You too, Tootie. This really means a lot to me and Cosmo and Wanda." he remarked with a grin, "I guess I'll leave you to train, then. I'll take these back home for the two of them." He gave a small wave and headed out.

"What training?" Romi asked in confusion and Tootie sighed dreamily.

"I'm going to learn to fight so that I can go with Timmy in the next Spire mission." she replied wistfully, "All I have to do is prove that I can be a big help and then he'll fall in love with me! It's destiny!" The cat only gave a little sigh as her ears drooped.

"Oh, this does not bode well." she moaned quietly.


	5. Chapter 5

5

On the day the Ivory Tower and the S-List debuted, Remy stood at the head of the Populars' lunch table, seething. Watching the group walk onto the campus that morning with all the confidence that once belonged to the A-List club just about made him froth at the mouth. The only thing stopping him from making _that_ horrid mistake was Juandissimo quietly telling him that his face was looking even less sexy than unsexy. That term was quickly getting on Remy's nerves.

What drove him even more into a desire to just lay waste to the whole school was that little mongrel leading the new club. Every wish he made to try to get him out of the city ended in utter failure. In fact, it never even had a chance to begin. Juandissimo had a tape recording of the now monotonous response to those wishes; each time he opened his mouth after seeing Timothy Neogene walk by, the fairy would whip it out, hit the button and the phrase 'Oh, sorry. That wish is against El Rules. He is immune to all other fairy magic.' would play back and give him a conniption.

And then there were the phone calls that he'd made and were made to him. Back and forth, like some devil's tennis game; he'd search out for more information regarding this brat, compiling, very slowly, a collection of data that would one day reveal the truth behind the wretch, and then wham! A phone call from the Hounder Organization telling him to cease and desist, lest legal actions were taken to block his access to those public records. Public records, yeah, sure. He'd sent private investigators after private data, and when they failed to find something, he wished himself into the Internet and ransacked various servers personally.

And all Remy got for his trouble was the same stupid list of good boy reports. Volunteer work, charity work, guest appearances, morale boosting visits, ties to government officials... a freaking Boy Scout in Goth apparel. And the only link between all the online files concerning the teen's personal and private data was simply that all of those files were introduced to the information network roughly four years ago. Before that, no computer in the world had ever heard of Timothy Neogene. The boy simply appeared, poof, like that.

He'd even gotten calls from his parents telling him to knock off whatever he was doing because a very large, _very_ powerful corporation was breathing down their necks each time Remy went off to protest the building of the Ivory Tower. So much for emancipation; the neglectful idiots still thought they had control of their little Remy-boy. He drummed his fingers against the table, aiming mental daggers at the dark-clad teen surrounded by his new 'S'-List friends and dozens of new fans. S-List. The little mongrel even had the gall to raise his club level above A-List. And they weren't even _real_ rich kids! Chester looked appalling in that tacky sports coat and non-faded jeans that had not been heisted from some dumpster in the city. And geeky A.J. preening about in high fashion that was utterly destroyed by that stupid white coat and the once-a-nerd-always-a-nerd pocket protector. Sanjay, that escapee from Immigration, grinning hugely in what looked like an Army shirt and cargo pants that was probably loaded down with old photos of the Turner brat, the sicko. Ugh, even the Boil Kid... dressed all in his Sunday best and that damned pink hat still on his head! How often had he wished for that thing to burn, only to have Juandissimo play that bloody recording to him?! Sometimes, that fairy needed a reminder of who was in charge. Hence, the traps, the nullifiers, the anti-magic devices he carried on his person.

And that little witch, the one who tagged after Turner as a child with her little dreams of wedding bells. She was decked out even more horrendously than before; really, did she need **that** much black and who in their right minds allowed her to carry a dagger on the premises?! And she stood right by Timothy like some tiny bodyguard, and she'd probably have her fairy godparent on standby. Would _her_ wishes affect the boy? He murmured a wish to the candlestick beside him to find out.

"Of course not. No other fairy magic can touch that boy. He is immune." Juandissimo grumbled, still irritated by the use of the nullifier right beside him less than a week ago.

Oh well. Still, this presented a problem on a social scale. Public attacks on that wretch, personal attacks like the school yard fights, were no longer possible. There were too many figures standing between them, and he bet that the brat knew it. He purposely did all this to hide behind a shield of friends and fans, the coward. And that tower, it was an eyesore. A wretched copy of one of his own Dark Spires, built of white marble and silver trim and reaching into the sky like some massive bird being flicked at him.

There must be something precious in there. Perhaps additional data on this wretch that he could use to expose him, stop him from bringing down his Spires before they could fully activate their powers. He just had to get it.

"I knew it. I knew it. I always knew. He could never die. Not him. Not the Heart." Veronica chanted between giggles, lovingly stroking the hair of a small plush doll. Remy glanced at her and rolled his eyes. A Turner plush, ugh. And what was she babbling on about, the nut?

And Trixie was off circling the mob of fans for a chance to get close to the S-List. If he was ever going to regain control of her, he would have to recapture her fairy. Though, that was easier said than done. Each time he brought a new device into the building, Timothy would home in on it with uncanny accuracy, demolish it and dump the remains on his table with that blasted grin glued to his face. How the hell did he know where those things were?! He hid them in the most hard to access places. Heck, he even stashed them in the very walls of the school, wished inside with Juandissimo's help! And he would get to those, too! Remy would rush back to see what damage had been done to extract the device and not a scratch would be on that wall.

He had to have been using magic somehow, but at least one of those devices had been a nullifier, and still the wall remained perfect. How was he doing it? How?!

"He moved up." Tad commented blandly, a hint of jealousy in his tone, "Now he's cooler than us."

"Should we try to get into _that_ club?" Chad asked. The other boy shrugged and both boys stood up to join the group walking across the yard. Remy shot them both warning glares and the two sat back down. "Then again, the A-List **is** the original cool club." Chad remarked shakily, "Why should we bother with a copy?"

They were heading for the Ivory Tower. Remy stood, grinding his teeth together as he snatched up the candlestick and ordered the remainder of his group to stay put. No way was that brat going to get away with making a fool of Remy Buxaplenty!

* * *

"Aren't you going to eat your lunch?" Tootie asked over the intercom as she sat behind the glass wall that overlooked the training room. The Ivory Tower was as magnificent inside as it was outside, with ample floorspace for anything the teens could ever want. Sanjay spent a majority of his time with A.J. in the lab, analyzing the simulation program as it ran continuously on a wall sized monitor, his laptop delegated to absorbing all the information it could on the stolen switch using data from the Archives files. Elmer and Chester sat with Tootie and the three fairies in the observation room, watching Genis and Timmy cast spells in the training room.

_"I will as soon as I get at least one of these stupid spells to come out right!"_ Timmy yelled back in frustration, _"Lousy disc! I don't get it!"_ Events were moving quickly to make up for lost time. The night Timmy delivered the charged wands and the package, he'd gotten a call from New York on Caleb's condition. The android was able to speak on his own, and was using the Eternal Sword Pin to speed up the rest of his repairs. He had to hurry and learn the spells needed to let him trust his capabilities in the next mission. Cosmo and Wanda had been curious about the box he'd brought to them and cautiously opened it to see what was inside while he was still on the phone. He was able to get a glimpse of the contents himself as they lifted the items out.

News reports on the situation in Dimmsdale, clippings of what the populace thought of the married couple, photos of family, packaged cookies and treats from Big Daddy and Mama Cosma, letters from friends and family... it was a box of morale-boosting mementos and Timmy had left the room to let his godparents have their time alone to sort through emotions. Now they looked more confident, more sure of themselves, although he still sometimes worried about their states of minds at times.

Romi had been surprised that she hadn't been told to stay in Fairy World for being exposed to Chester and the Others. Had it slipped Jorgen's mind to enact punishment on Tootie for allowing the exposure? Or was there something else going on that had the training instructor too busy to dole out punishments left and right? Either way, she was relieved that she was able to stay with Tootie and found herself enjoying the ability to perch on the girl's shoulder in full view around her friends without fear of repercussion. Even more comforting was the fact that none of the other teens seemed at all envious of Tootie or Timmy for having fairy godparents. No one thought to ask why, but felt that they should just leave it at that and not invite discord.

_"Dude, what's not to get? You're launching a fiery sword from the air to the ground!" _Chester pointed out incredulously, _"Think big sword of fire from air to ground!"_

"This isn't as easy as it looks, Chester! How's about **you** come down here and yank a giant flaming sword out of nothing and plunk it down on a target the size of a trash can?!" the brunet shot back and slammed the staff down at another failed attempt, "Genis! I can't figure it out! Those instructions are too complicated! What the heck do you think I am? A bookworm?!"

_Flame Lance_ had appeared to be one of the easiest of the level-two spells to try, but Timmy's eyes had crossed as the group of teens read aloud the procedure for learning and casting the spell. Genis tried to explain it more simply, then did a demonstration of the spell. The teen still didn't understand it.

"Call up Fire mana from all around. The very air holds heat; that heat can be converted into Fire mana." the small android told him again, "Channel it, bring it forth and focus it into the blade. Then guide the blade to the target." He showed it again, flipping the kendama in his hands as the circle of red light bloomed at his feet. _"Bring down the blade of the inferno! Flame Lance!"_ He held out the toy and a perfect spear of fire slammed down onto the target droid from out of the air, erupting in a burst of flames that tossed it aside like a broken toy. "Now, try again."

The brunet watched the spell carefully, trying to figure out what exactly went into it. Still, the idea of using a toy to conjure up the spell was just... weird. And distracting. Picking the staff back up, he sighed and tried once more to follow the steps. He shut his eyes, picturing the spell in his mind. Just copy it. Do what he did and it should just come out.

First the red light appeared at his feet, spinning as it shone crimson in the snowy white room. Then he called up the mana for the spell itself, gathering it high above the target droid. The blade... what did it look like again? It was kinda like a spear or maybe a sword... he tried to picture it again. Sword, kind of at an angle. He shaped the Fire mana in his mind, molding it to the image of the sword Genis had summoned. Okay, that was done. Now, when it came down, it was trailing fire and once it hit the target, it did that little blast of fire that spread out for a short range. Splash damage. _Bulla Scintillare_ did that too. He could definitely get the sword to do that, just dump it down onto the target and make it act like the little bombs once the sword part impacted. Similar force, similar explosion, right?

"He's taking an awfully long time at it." Elmer pointed out, leaning closer to study the digital readouts on a console set into the observation room, "Genis cast it in no time, but Timothy's taking a few seconds longer and he hasn't even called the incantation to cast the spell yet!" Tootie clasped her hands together, watching him worriedly.

"I bet it's because he didn't eat lunch." she murmured.

Timmy held the staff forward, pressing his free palm against the handle as he focused on the steps in his head. This should do it. This time, for sure, he'd learn that spell!

_"Bring down the blade of the inferno! Flame Lance!" _he yelled and the fiery sword manifested into the air, slamming down onto the target droid. It exploded perfectly, sending the target skittering and bouncing across the floor like so much melted slag. Timmy grinned and let out a breath of relief. Finally! Now, he needed to sit. He plopped back onto the floor and brought the Rune Staff up to help support himself, watching Genis march up to ground zero and study the floor and the droids.

"It appears as though you've successfully learned _Flame Lance_." he remarked and the brunet gave a tired cheer. "Although, the casting time was unusually long. Aren't you wearing the Mystic Symbol?"

"Yeah. Why? What's wrong with the cast time? It was the first time I actually managed to fire the thing off, I think I'm entitled to a few extra seconds of getting it to work!" Timmy retorted. Genis rubbed his head, then walked back to him, bending slightly to stare at him with unblinking eyes.

"You used up a large amount of mana casting the spell. Are you using the Faerie Ring?" the little half-elf asked. The brunet pulled off a glove and held up his hand, displaying the glowing ring on his finger. "Strange. Why did it take longer and cost more for you to cast the same spell I did?" Genis mused and straightened, closing his eyes. "Now analyzing visual data."

"Yeah, you do that." Timmy muttered and looked up at the observation window, "Next spell!"

_"Try this one out!"_ Chester called back, _"Air Thrust! It sounds cool!"_ The brunet folded his hands behind his head, lower lip jutting out in annoyance.

"'Course it sounds cool. You're not the one working your butt off trying to learn this stuff." he muttered as Genis opened his eyes at last.

"Insufficient data. I have to analyze what the observation room computers captured of the test." he announced and left the room. The brunet watched him leave and looked up as the intercom crackled to life again.

_"Dude, dude! How about_ Prism Sword_?"_ Chester yelled out.

"Level-TWO!" Timmy shouted back, "Chester! Knock it off with the high level stuff! Someone get that disc away from him!"

--

Wanda and Cosmo fluttered around the monitor as Genis looked over the various scans and recordings of the _Flame Lance_ practice. What exactly it was the android was looking for was beyond anyone's guess, so the teens turned back to watching Timmy try to cast _Air Thrust_. Wind mana spun around in loops, but it didn't do anything to the target droid beyond pushing it around a little. The brunet knelt on the floor after a while, panting from the effort and tired from using up so much mana.

"I'm going to go and get him some lunch. We only have a few minutes before we have to go back to school." Tootie remarked and hurried out the automated sliding door with Romi in hot pursuit. Chester leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh.

"I never thought I'd actually become a Popular." he remarked idly, "Whatever this Hounder Organization is, it must really like Timothy to do all of this just 'cause we're his friends."

"The Hounder Organization and the Archives of the Twin Blades holds more power than people realize, primarily to allow Caleb easier access to data when he needs it. We also use our power to protect the Heroes of the world." Genis put in automatically, eyes speeding over the scans and scrolling lines of data, "Timothy Neogene is one of those Heroes, though he is still coming into his power. With every great darkness that falls over a land, at least one Hero already exists in that homeland with the potential to defeat that darkness. Caleb has sworn to not only save the knowledge of the world, but protect the Heroes that will save the world."

"But Timothy died and was brought back to life, right? Why didn't he protect him before he died?" Elmer questioned in confusion. Wanda and Cosmo glanced at each other in concern, clutching their wands tightly.

"Timothy died because of an accident. The timing, the placement, the circumstances around it; nothing short of a miracle or divine intervention could have prevented that death. Caleb's only choice, then, was to shield Timothy from the world until he could be reintroduced to combat the shadow that only he could face." the android returned, "In this case, the Dark Spires that are draining mana and magic from your city. Normally, Caleb himself would not interfere with the clashes between darkness and the Heroes, but in the case where the mana supply of the world is threatened, he will actively take a role in the defeat."

"Um, say again? In English?" Chester asked dryly.

"Caleb is a figure of neutrality; he stays out of actual conflicts, but he is always watching to see what occurs. He chooses to only stand as a guide for Heroes when they face the evils they are destined to meet." Genis explained, "But there is a time when Caleb himself enters a fight against darkness, and that is when the Yggdrasill Tree is threatened. The Tree is the source of mana for this world, and anything that consumes or negates mana in vast amounts will kill that Tree. There are two vows that bind Caleb to the protection of the world as a whole; the vow to Lloyd to help protect the Tree because it holds his sister Martel as its Guardian Spirit, and the vow to the Wonder Chef Adam 'Wren' Voraci to protect the world because he loved the world and everything that lived on it."

"So he's doing all this for his sister and a cook?" Elmer questioned, eyebrow lifted incredulously.

"Basically, yes." the half-elf returned dryly and blinked, "Analysis completed." The boys and fairies stared at him, waiting. Genis only gazed down at the screens, motionless, for several minutes. "That's..." he finally murmured, "inconceivable." Chester and Elmer looked at each other, shrugged and got up to study the screens with him. There was video playback of both Genis and Timmy casting the spell. Nothing looked out of place to the boys.

"Looks the same to me. What's wrong?" Chester remarked. Genis shook his head, an expression of shock perfectly recreated on his face.

"It's not the same. My _Flame Lance_ and Timothy's _Flame Lance_ spells look the same, act the same, and do the same damage... but they are not exactly the same. Something is wrong." he replied, "Scans report that the spell I cast was a perfect replica of the original Genis' spell-casting technique; channelling mana through the kendama to direct the formation of the spell. In other words, using the kendama as the focus to create and cast _Flame Lance_."

"So, then what did Timothy do different?" Elmer asked in confusion, looking between the two images on the monitors. Genis put his arms akimbo, a puzzled look on his face replacing the shock.

"It appears to be conjuring. There was nothing to act as the focus; the spell simply _appeared_." he replied and held out a hand, flicking his finger, "Poof! There it is. Timothy _didn't_ learn _Flame Lance_, and I'm suspecting he never actually learned any of the other spells. He's only mimicking them; perfect copies of ancient spells!" He leaned over the console, looking down at Timmy and Tootie as the brunet ate a sandwich the young Goth brought for him. "But the copies consume more mana than the true spells. Why is that? With the Faerie Ring equipped, all spells should have their mana requirements cut in half. If he were to cast the copy spell without it, would it completely drain him of his mana supply?" he questioned.

"Maybe it's because he's young? Kids nowadays are so wasteful!" Wanda pointed out with a laugh, rubbing her head sheepishly, "He does tend to squander things of magical natures, y'know!"

"He definitely knows how to waste wishes!" Cosmo put in helpfully, a goofy smile on his face, "Wanda, remember that time when he used up a wish to turn himself into a g-ergh!" The pink-haired fairy waved her wand in irritation, transforming his lips into a zipper.

"Shut it, moron! We had a deal on that one, remember?!" she snapped.

"I want to test something." Genis remarked and pressed on the intercom button, "Timothy! Do you recall the _Flame Lance_ spell you just finished?"

_"Yeah, what about it?"_

"Do me a favor and cast it once more."

_"Okay. It'll probably be easier to do, now that I know it."_

Genis set the console to recording as Timmy held out the staff and called out the incantation. The fiery sword slammed into the target droid once again. The half-elf studied the readouts on the monitors, tilted his head and hummed.

"Not as much mana usage that time, but still higher than the original spell called for." he remarked and pressed the com button again, "All right, Timothy. Now, forget all about what you just learned. I want you to cast _Flame Lance_ as though it were a spell you came up with."

_"What?!"_

"You heard me. Pretend as though you've never seen me cast it, as if you didn't spend all this time trying to match the spell on the disc." Genis clarified, "I want you to cast a spell that's similar to _Flame Lance_ but is of your own doing. Like what you've done with the mana shield and the Light orb."

_"But Caleb said those were unreliable!"_

"Never mind that. Just do it. Play with it. I'm curious to see what you can do on your own." the half-elf returned.

Down in the training room, Timmy gave the raven-haired girl by him a puzzled look. She only shrugged, mirroring his expression. This was strange. First he's told not to use those on-the-fly spells because Caleb didn't trust them, now he has to forget the procedure for casting _Flame Lance_ and cast it however he wanted? Why couldn't these old robots make up their minds?

"Sheesh! I can't catch a lucky break these days, can I?" he sighed and held out his staff, thinking quickly. Okay, a _Flame Lance_ done his way. How would he go about making something like that in a hurry? Fire and a weapon, the two had to be combined with mana... a weapon made of mana, the element should be Fire...

Lance...

Flame...

_Flame Lance..._

The circle of red light bloomed at his feet and he pressed his palm against the rod again, glaring at the target droid only a few yards from him. They wanted a Timmy Turner-style _Flame Lance_? Well, they're gonna get one!

_"Flagrare Lancea!"_ he cried and a spear of white-hot flames shot down from above the target, exploding into a spiral of fire that spun outward upon impact. Tootie screamed and ducked behind him, clutching his shirt as she shook from sudden shock and fear of the spell. He blinked back at her, then looked back at the charred remains of the target droid, black soot covering the floor and back wall. Maybe he overdid it? The com crackled on again.

_"Thank you very much, Timothy. You and your friends may return to class now. Please come back here after school."_ Genis called out and that was it. They were dismissed. Timmy frowned, handing off the staff to an automated butler as he and Tootie left the room. Whatever was going on, it was being kept secret from him and if there was one thing Timmy hated, it was being left in the dark!

* * *

Wanda and Cosmo sat on the windowsill closest to Timmy as he went through his English class. Disguised as squirrels once more, they watched him flip through his books lazily, disinterested in what was going on around him. He had begun murmuring a wish for Veronica to forget their meeting at the cemetery, but after seeing her race around and declaring she'd seen him alive and well and no one bothered to give her a second look, he decided that her manic personality was better at keeping his identity a secret than a wish. The fairies agreed cautiously; though Wanda would have preferred the memory wipe, on an unstable mind it might not have turned out so well, and why use up magic on a wish that could require more later to repair mental damages?

"Conjuring." Wanda sighed at last and shook her head, "I wondered why Timmy's magic and Caleb's magic didn't feel the same." Cosmo tilted his head, a puzzled expression on his face. "Magic is magic, but we can feel it all the same, remember?" she told him in exasperation, "Caleb's magic feels very old and very powerful. It's very contained, very focused. He's trained in it for thousands and thousands of years. He's been at it since way before either one of us was born!"

"He didn't make the dinosaurs extinct." the green squirrel pointed out with a grin. Wanda smiled at that and nodded.

"Yeah, but it sure made him mad. He said he wasn't done cataloging them all and now he has to wait until the humans do it for him." she snickered, "Too bad for him." She watched their godchild give Trixie a tentative smile as she blew a kiss at him, and shook her head again. "But Timmy's magic is different."

"It's more explodey?" Cosmo asked, spinning an acorn on the sill with both hands, tail flicking excitedly.

"No, it's more familiar. It's wild and free-flowing and all around him. He holds it in his hands and plays with it and toys with it, shapes it into whatever he wants or needs it to be." Wanda sighed and held out her wand. She gave it a flick and a cookie poofed into existence. Cosmo immediately snatched it and began munching away happily. "Like that. Timmy's magic is limited only by his creativity, and we both know how crazy his imagination can get when it comes to wishes!" Cosmo paused in the middle of taking another bite of cookie, then set it down to look seriously at her.

"Timmy's magical power has the potential to make him more powerful than Caleb, provided he learns how to fully utilize it." he murmured softly, "He has no limits but the belief that he does. When that belief is shattered, his power will magnify beyond what we thought was possible." Wanda stared at him, mortified by her husband's words. Then the goofy smile was back and he held up the cookie to her. "Do you have one for Pete? Pete wants a cookie too!" he exclaimed. Wanda wilted in relief, but in the back of her mind she worried again.

The potential was there and, like Cosmo said, it was very high. As long as Timmy stayed in the Light, that potential would be used for good. But if ever Darkness creeped in and overcame him... She shuddered involuntarily, recalling a wish that went horribly wrong and revealed just how dark their godchild could become. Comfort, comfort, she needed comfort.

There was a soft tap on the glass and she looked up to see Timmy press his fingertips against the window, acting as though his attention was riveted on the book he was reading. Had he seen her shivering there on the windowsill and instinctively reached out to try to comfort her? Touched by the gesture, she hopped closer and pressed her cheek against the glass, smiling.

_"Sunu!"_ she purred, _"Bene nasci..."_

"Not in public. Not out loud." Cosmo muttered, "Anyone hears that and we're dead, banished or not." But he, too, smiled and took another bite of the cookie.

* * *

Rejected at the door.

Remy fumed as he stood outside the gate to the Ivory Tower. He'd been rejected at the door. Never in his entire life had Remy Buxaplenty **ever** been refused entrance to **any** establishment! He demanded admittance, declared who he was and even went so far as to offer a bribe to the guard at the gate.

The guard had laughed at the amount of money, cash money, the blonde had held out. Then he waved his hand flippantly at him, told him that it was going to take more than just chump change for him to even think of double-crossing orders from the representative of the Hounder Organization that was holed up inside the Tower. Remy stomped off, red-faced. That was humiliation beyond humiliation! How dare that organization stand between him and the destruction of that blasted mongrel who paraded around like some godsent gift to girls during the day and utterly destroyed his towers at night?!

He whipped out a phone, dialed a number and started pulling strings all he could. If he couldn't get inside that thing, then maybe he should do as the wretch did... and tear it down before his very eyes!

* * *

The S-List began making their way back to the Ivory Tower, curious to know what it was that Genis was doing with those mysterious readouts that none of them could figure out. Two squirrels and a cat tagged along after the group as they chattered on about homework and tests, the menial, everyday things that let them know that they still had lives other than helping an immortal wreck black towers of doom at night.

"I so want to take the test that lets me get out of middle school." Tootie sighed and took on a droll expression, "If I have to see more girls in their pink and white Hello Kitty outfits, I'm gonna figure out that _Flame Lance_ spell and launch it into their bathroom."

"Yeah, definitely trained by Sam." Timmy sighed in return, "Remind me to give my cousin a kick for that."

"You have a cousin?" Chester questioned and the brunet panicked momentarily.

"Uh, well! It's a term I use for this guy that I met who, uh, helped me out while I was in New York!" he stammered out. Sanjay clasped his hands together cheerfully.

"That is so very nice to know! I did not think that there were more nice people in the world who would help a member of the undead!" he exclaimed brightly, "Where did you meet your 'Cousin'?"

"Uh... the Internet?" the brunet fell back on his old standby, then winced as the group stopped, turned and stared at him, "MySpace dot com? A singles forum? What? Why are you staring at me?!"

"For a Popular, you sure are strange." A.J. remarked and the group continued on to the Tower. Timmy sighed in relief and hurried after them.

The group stopped again in collective shock as they found themselves at the Ivory Tower and saw a gathering of demolition machines idling nearby. Remy stood at the gate to the Tower with a bullhorn in hand, grinning in anticipated victory.

"What's going on?!" Elmer cried in alarm, "What are all these bulldozers and wrecking balls doing here?!"

"They're going to tear down the Ivory Tower?!" Tootie yelped, "But Caleb barely got it finished in time for us to use it!" She pointed at the machines. "Romi! I wish-!" Timmy reached out and calmly placed a hand over hers, shaking his head.

"That wouldn't be a good idea. Remy might have an anti-magic trap on him. Let me check the radar." he told her and pulled the device free to study the screen. "We're clear, but let me handle this. The day just isn't complete until I've ticked off Remy Buxaplenty." he added with a grin, slipping the detector back into its pouch at his hip. He led the group past the waiting workers and machines, making a beeline for the front gate. The blonde spotted the group and grinned wider, waving the purple megaphone at the waiting demolition workers.

"Welcome, one and all, to Fun and Happy Demolition Day!" Remy remarked cheerfully, "According to an injunction I received, this building is far too reflective for traffic safety and must be torn down immediately." He held out a paper and dangled it before the group. A.J. peered at it and nodded slowly.

"Looks legal and binding." he remarked worriedly, "What are we going to do? The Ivory Tower was built according to code and the scaled specifications on those blueprints."

"There's **nothing** you can do!" Remy laughed, rolling up the paper and sliding it into his coat pocket, "Well, besides standing by and watching this expensive little piece of junk become a pile of expensive pieces of junk!" He smoothed back his hair and gave the brunet a dazzling smile. "See? This is Dimmsdale, little mongrel, and I can do whatever I _want_ here!"

"Huh, really? I forgot about that for a moment there. Thanks for the reminder." Timmy answered in mild surprise and headed past the gate to see the Tower himself. He circled around it carefully, tilted his head in thought, then nodded. Glancing over at the pair of squirrels nestled under the bushes on the grounds, he murmured a wish, waited until the puff of pink smoke fully dissipated, then walked back to join the blonde and his friends. "Yeah, that looks about right." Timmy remarked with a smile, "I almost forgot those rules about Dimmsdale." He folded his hands behind his head and sighed. "Well, if you want to tear it down, fine. You win. Just tell the guys to start from the west side if they want to get a good swing in."

"Hah! I knew you'd cave! You can't beat me!" Remy cheered and immediately turned to give the order. The demolition crew geared up and moved to the west of the building as the S-List gawked at Timmy in stunned silence.

"**Dude!** You just said to go ahead and let them tear down the Ivory Tower?!" Chester finally yelled in horror, _"Why?!"_ The brunet smiled brightly.

"Because they can't." he replied. Remy stopped his laughter and snapped a sharp glare at him.

"They **what**?" he demanded. Timmy shrugged.

"They can't. Rules." he repeated, "One person holds more power in Dimmsdale than you, Remy. You forgot that. And right now, he's making sure this Tower remains exactly where it is." He pointed at the fleet of yellow equipment that had promptly shut themselves off and sat dead on the street. "You can go see for yourself, if you want."

Grumbling and growling under his breath, Remy marched off to see what had caused his crew to stall, Timmy and his friends hurrying along to watch the whole event unfold. As they passed by the men and women of the demolition crew, they noticed that each one had a wistful smile on their face. Some had handkerchiefs in hand, dabbing at their eyes. Others talked about various old anecdotes as still more stood around, listening and nodding and laughing. The foreman was even lifting a can of beer in a toast to the Ivory Tower.

"Finest thing I've seen all day!" he declared and downed the brew.

"What the bloody hell?" Remy muttered and pushed past them all to look up at the Tower himself.

Etched plain as day in the side of the building was a depiction of a small boy in a plain shirt and cap, and sporting large front teeth in a cheerful smile. Below that was a large brass plaque reading 'Erected in honor of the Heart of Dimmsdale, Timothy Tiberius Turner. Let the joy he brought to this city forever flow true'. Remy's face turned red as he spun around to confront the grinning brunet.

"One of the rules of Dimmsdale, right? No one can destroy or damage anything that was put up in honor of Timmy Turner, right? Gee, how did you miss seeing that on the Tower?" he asked cheerfully, "Man, was _that_ a bad call!"

"That wasn't there earlier!" Remy hissed at him, "When did that appear?!" Timmy blinked at him in mock surprise.

"Oh, geez, it's worse than I thought! You mean you totally missed seeing that? Maybe you should get your eyes checked. Put on some glasses or something, I mean, how could you miss something **that** big?" he replied in astonishment and smiled again.

"I bet that little witch wished it on there!" he growled, "You can't protect her fairy forever!" Timmy stood impassively before him, deadpan expression replacing his jovial one.

"Actually, I can. Or rather, I only have to stand between you and her until the day you lie six feet under." he returned coldly, then broke into another smile, "Your eye is twitching. You should really get that checked." He pulled one hand up and smiled wider as it was engulfed in white flames. "Now, please get off my property before I'm forced to chase you off. This is the territory of the Hounder Organization, and Hounder absolutely _hates_ people trying to mess with his charitable contributions." Remy huffed in disdain and began walking off.

"You might have won this round, Neogene, but mark my words, I'll have my revenge!" he declared over his shoulder, "I'll make sure you **pay** for crossing me!" Timmy only waved neighborly at him as the other teens gathered around to look up at the engraving.

"It looks just like him!" Sanjay sighed happily, "Oh, it is a most magnificent addition to the Ivory Tower! Now it truly **is** a comforting place to be in after school!"

"Fairies work fast." A.J. murmured appreciatively. Chester whooped in triumph, jumping up and down.

"Okay! Score one for the Timmy Team! Now let's get inside and see what Genis wanted to tell us!" he declared and led the way into the Ivory Tower.

--

The half-elf looked somewhat frazzled once everyone was gathered in the conference room. Automated waiters scurried about, bringing sodas and snacks to the teens as they watched him in concern. The android's eye seemed to twitch and they collectively pulled back, shrinking in their seats. The three fairies buried themselves into their godchildren's arms, blinking fearfully at the small android.

"Well... that blows everything Caleb knew about magic out of the water." Genis finally remarked and made a half-hearted attempt to laugh. The group looked at one another, then returned to watching him in confusion. "Timothy... isn't using real magic." he added with another weak laugh.

_"What?!"_ Timmy yelled incredulously, "Run that by me again?! If that's not magic I've been using for the last four years of my afterlife, then what the heck do you call it?!" The monitor behind the half-elf clicked on and Caleb's face appeared on the screen, filling up a majority of the wall.

"It's magic, all right, but on a different level than what I know." he filled them in, "I got the reports from Genis, but I think he blew a circuit trying to analyze the data into a form he could understand."

"Are you fully repaired already?" A.J. asked in surprise. The redhead on the screen shook his head.

"No. Only partially. I'm actually lying down for this. The Eternal Sword Pin is creating a bubble of inverted time around my equipment and me so the repairs can be done at a faster pace." the android replied, "I should be completed by noon tomorrow. In the meantime, I've been thinking over the data that was sent to me." He pursed his mouth tightly in displeasure. "From what I could tell of the data, Timothy's mana manipulation is less procedural and more instinctive; he's not casting magic the way I cast it, the way elves and half-elves cast it. What he is doing is transforming and moving mana around from different areas around him; this is what Boltzman had been trying to achieve in his notes."

"Alchemy?" A.J. questioned and Caleb nodded.

"Yes. But Boltzman stopped his research once he gained the ability to heal. Had he pursued the course, he may have achieved the powers Timothy possesses. Boltzman was a human who learned how to use components like Mana Leaf Herb and a unicorn's horn to channel neutral mana for healing." he explained, "Timothy's abilities are either innate to him due to his exposure to fairy magic for so long and so often, or was a result of being in Death's possession for the days it took to locate him in purgatory. I'm not entirely sure yet." He gave another sigh, looking somewhat defeated. "But in light of these early findings and the mana consumption rate comparison between Timothy mimicking the spells I know and creating new ones from out of the blue, I'm afraid to say that he'd be better off not learning any more of the spells and techniques used by my ancient comrades."

"English, Caleb. I'm not A.J." Timmy growled.

"Wing it, kid. You're on your own magic-wise." the redhead shot back and looked thoughtful, "Perhaps your low intelligence stat is also a factor in your inability to actually cast the real spells? If so, then pass the disc onto Tootie. Tootie, you should focus on learning all of the healing spells on that disc. I'm certain that you'll be able to understand the instructions more easily." The little Goth nodded as Timmy huffed and drummed his fingers on the table, the two fairies snickering and pointing at him. "Once I have fully analyzed the data, I may have some more tests to run on you, Timothy. The potential you hold is very high and I want to be sure what your limits could be." Cosmo rolled across the table in giggles. "A.J., about the stolen switch, we may as well leave it as a sustainable loss. I've gathered all the data I could from it and there's nothing more to be recovered from that hardware. Use the Archives' information systems to work on it." the android went on, "I have a feeling that we must know what that switch was involved in. Well, that should be everything. I'm signing off to continue repairs. As always, Timothy, you're in charge of Dimmsdale, so keep your allies safe however you can until I am able to return to your aid."

The monitor switched off and all eyes turned to the brunet sitting in his chair, sulking.

"I** knew** this was gonna come back and bite me one day!" he yelled in frustration, "Why can't dead people catch a break?!"


	6. Chapter 6

6

The school was given advance notice for the remainder of the week. The Hounder Organization absolutely required Timothy Neogene to be in the Ivory Tower for business reasons, confidential of course. All work for the teen was to be collected and delivered to the front gate of the Tower. The guards would scan it for foreign objects and possible threatening items, then deliver the package of homework to him in the Tower. The remainder of the S-List continued going to classes, spreading out stories of supposedly hush-hush operations that ranged from a hostile takeover of Parker-Brothers to a plan to buy OPEC. Elmer was feeling somewhat better about the pink hat he wore when several students passed him by, wearing faded hats of various colors and cheering as they saw him with the only pink hat allowed in the city. The other S-List kids held down the fort and posted verbal barriers that made it nearly impossible for Remy to get close to the Ivory Tower without looking like some jealous, greedy little bastard out to steal funds.

_"Bulla Scintillare!" _the brunet cried aloud, hurling the triple spheres of condensed Fire mana at his target. They exploded on impact, filling the room with flashes of light and heat and sending the droid skittering about with black streaks along its hull. Timmy panted, dropping to one knee as he tried to get a few seconds of rest. As promised, Caleb had come out of his emergency repairs roughly fifteen hours after the meeting in the Ivory Tower and promptly told Timmy to get back into the training room, pick out one of the spells he'd created himself and cast it continuously until he was drained of mana.

It sounded crazy and at first Timmy refused to do it. The angel kicked him into the room, sealed the door and flooded it with the training droids on high aggression.

_"Do it, or I'm not Rezzing you."_ Caleb snapped into the intercom. So now here was Timmy, spending a full hour hurling the least expensive of his mana manipulation spells at droids that crawled all over the floor in attempts to stab their little claws into his body. Speaking of which...

"No, not again!" Timmy moaned and summoned another set of the spheres, _"Bulla Scintillare!"_ He tossed them out, the trio tumbled through the air, then just seemed to fizzle into nothing, dissipating back into the air as the brunet collapsed and curled up, covering his head as he waited for the droids to attack. They never did; every single last one of them froze in place and the com crackled back to life.

_"Okay, break. I'm analyzing the data. Good work."_ the angel remarked and Cosmo and Wanda poofed into the training room, fluttering down to him in concern. The pink-haired fairy pressed a tiny hand to his forehead, then pulled it away, shaking it free of sweat as their godchild curled up tighter, gasping for air.

"Cosmo! Do something! Get water or a sandwich or some juice!" she yelled at her husband, noticing him just floating there. He snapped out of his trance and shook his head before waving his wand and poofing a glass of water into the air. Wanda grabbed it in both hands and held it out to the boy. "Timmy, here's some water. Come on, sit up and drink some." she urged softly. His only response was another soft moan. She bit her lip, blinking back tears. "Timmy, come on! Water! Get up!" she pleaded, then shut her eyes and flew back, aiming her wand at him.

"No!" Cosmo yelped and tackled her, spilling the glass of water and sending the fairy's wand spinning across the floor, "You spilled the water!" Wanda struggled again, snatched his wand from his grasp and aimed that instead.

"He's out of magic! I'm gonna help him recover and you'd better not stop me!" she declared and cried in shock as the green-haired fairy grabbed the wand back, smacking the star on it against her head.

"Not fairy magic!" he scolded and got up from the floor, holding his arms out as he looked over his drenched self, "Can't heal that with fairy magic. Too risky." He walked away, then took flight, squeezing water from his clothing. "Besides, he's doing fine now. See?" He pointed down at the brunet. Wanda blinked and watched the young immortal stretch his hand out and lift his fingers to the air. A shimmering cloud of white formed in a small puff before his fingertips, then began trailing in threads into his hand.

"Timmy?" the fairy questioned in wonder and the boy lifted his head to blink tiredly at her.

"Huh? Oh, give me a sec, okay?" he sighed, "I'm recharging." The puff faded after a few minutes and he pushed himself up to a sitting position. "Phew. I wish I had something to eat." he remarked in an exhausted tone. Wanda jumped for her wand and lifted it in concert with her husband, granting the wish. A plate with a sandwich appeared before the teen and he blinked in surprise before flashing his godparents a grateful smile. "Thanks!" He wolfed it down quickly and the couple conjured up a second glass of water for him.

_"Oh, you ate? Good. They're coming again. Keep using the same spell."_ Caleb announced. Timmy stood as the droids resumed their march, fed up with the stream of bizarre orders.

"That's it! Knock it off and tell me what's going on!" he yelled as the fairies flew out of the way. He spread his arms out, dozens of the Fire mana spheres circling around his hands like miniature glowing planets. _"Bulla Scintillare!"_ he exclaimed and abruptly brought his arms together, crossing them as the cloud of mana spheres rained down on the target droids and erupted into multiple explosions of light and fire. The com clicked on again.

_ "I was wondering when that would happen. All right. Get up here and I'll let you know what I've been doing."_ Caleb called out, a bemused tone in his voice and the door finally slid open. Timmy blinked in confusion, looked up at the fairies as they mirrored his expression, then shrugged and left the training room. Well, at least he was going to get some answers now.

--

Caleb was studying the monitors as Timmy walked in with the fairies perched on his shoulders. Genis sat limply in a nearby chair, motionless. Giving it a curious glance, the brunet reached out and poked at the silent android who, strangely enough, was wearing the funereal black outfit of his teacher guise instead of his usual green outfit. He asked about it as he mentioned the lifeless robot in the corner.

"Repairs. He's been shut off for now. And my magitech clothes need final repairs, so I'm wearing this as a separate outfit. No more distractions." the redhead muttered and tapped at the screen, "Take a look and tell me what you see." Timmy peered at the monitor with him, taking in the video feed of himself hurling out the spheres of mana at the droids.

"Me getting my butt handed to me?" he guessed dryly and Caleb shook his head.

"How about looking at the gauge?" he suggested and pointed at another screen. The second monitor held an image of Timmy, followed by a pair of colored bars on a graph, one in blue, the other in green. As the video began, the blue graph began to shrink at an amazing rate. But as time passed, the speed at which the blue bar lowered was slowing down. When the droids stopped the attack, it hovered just above a thin red line drawn across the chart. It began to slowly climb up, moved faster while Timmy on the video stretched out his hand to the air, then returned to normal once he'd eaten. The final stage of the video played and half the bar vanished with the enhanced _Bulla Scintillare_. "See what happened?"

"What is it?" the brunet asked in confusion, looking between the two monitors in attempts to understand the connection.

"When you first started using the spell _Bulla Scintillare_, it used up a large amount of your mana. However, as you continued using it over and over, it began to cost less and less." Caleb remarked, studying the charts again, "It's as if by practicing it, you're reducing the amount of mana it takes to be created." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. How exactly do you cast this anyway?" he asked curiously, "I'm not sure I can really help you until I know your procedure." Timmy blinked up at the angel, then shrugged, sending the fairies fluttering for space.

"I dunno. I just think it, I guess." he replied and scratched his head, "Let's see. I needed to clear out the ground units at that first Spire, so I figured some bombs would do the trick. Then I remembered those little smoke bombs that the police would use on mobs in New York, so I thought those would do the trick." He held out his hand and murmured softly for the Light orb to appear. "I had the Light orb down pretty good, so I decided to make Fire mana do the same, but if I packed it tight into a ball, it might make a bomb. I tried it out and that's how I got _Bulla Scintillare_." Timmy finished, making the orb vanish and be replaced by the three spheres of the Fire spell, "Huh, I didn't have to really focus on the change that time."

"Hmm, that might be what's reducing the mana cost. The more you have to concentrate on shaping and inventing the spell, the more mana is used up to help you focus." the android deduced, "When you do it over and over, it becomes like a habit, second nature. You do it without really thinking about it, like instinct. So it costs practically nothing to do it." He looked back at the video and grinned, "Also, you're not doing the magic circle when you got halfway through the droids." Timmy blinked and looked down at the monitor with him. He was right; early in the battle, the brunet had the circle of light spinning at his feet as he threw out the spheres. Eventually, the circle faded, forgotten, as the frenzy of throwing out the spell at a faster rate took over the boy's mind.

"Whoa! I thought you needed that to do magic!" he yelped, "How could I still be using _Bulla Scintillare_ without the circle?!"

"It's not an elven spell. The circle only appears for magic-users who use elven spells because it lets them know they have permission to tap into that Element. It tells them they have contact with that stream of mana." Caleb returned, "You don't need it because the contact is always there, it's always flowing through you. So to form the visual contact is just a waste of mana; part of you was focused on that, but your mind dropped it as useless once you saw the droids coming after you faster than you could hold back."

"So the Faerie Ring didn't help with reducing the amount of mana I use in spells because it all came from my thoughts?" Timmy asked, holding up the silver ring. The android gave a half-shrug.

"I think it didn't work because it was made to reduce the mana cost of elven spells. You're not using elven spells, so it's just sitting there doing nothing." he clarified, "The same with the Mystic Symbol around your neck. It speeds up the cast time of elven spells, but we can see from these charts that your speed relies on your familiarity with the spell. The better you get at it, the less concentration it takes to picture the spell in your mind, and the faster it is to cast it multiple times." He watched the boy remove both accessories and take a deep breath before flicking his hand out. The Light orb bloomed into existence above his palm before he even had the chance to exhale. "See? You use that nightlight of yours so often that it's nothing to you to just pull it into creation." Caleb finished with a grin, "I bet it didn't even cost a full unit of mana!"

"Okay, so my speed of casting spells is based on how well I know them, which is based on how well I can picture them in my head." Timmy remarked, tossing the ball back and forth in his hands, "It's using my imagination as a kind of gauge? The faster and better I can imagine the spell, the faster and less draining it is to cast it. Is that right?" The android nodded eagerly.

"Exactly! Your creativity is the mold for all your spells; your power relies on that to be brought to form!" he agreed.

"And this is conjuring and transforming? Not really magic, but close enough to let me do whatever I want as long as I can imagine it?"

"Yeah!"

"Then why does it make me feel so exhausted afterwards?" the brunet grumbled, clapping the orb between both hands to snuff out the light. Caleb sighed and rubbed his head.

"Probably because you're draining your personal mana supply to cast the spells. You know what fire feels like, so when you use a Fire spell, you're not really calling for Fire mana; you pull the mana from yourself because it's already there and you add the Element based on your memory of it. You **create** Fire mana from yourself." he explained, "If you would focus on pulling mana from the stream around you and use that, you wouldn't get so tired so fast." He frowned and rubbed at his chin in deeper thought. "That's more transforming. That's definitely alchemy. You have the memory of what different Elements feel like, so you apply the qualities from your memories to different streams of mana. This changes the mana from one Element to another. Hell, if you applied it to objects and substances, you could even change their physical makeup!"

Timmy yawned in boredom, letting his mind drift as the android went on cheerfully talking about other subjects and random theories. So his magic wasn't really magic, it was an ability to transform, manipulate and conjure through his imagination and using mana as the clay to do it. And the memory of Elements? What was that? Fire was hot, it burned and was bright and made him think of reds and oranges and shades of yellow and gold. Was that the memory of an Element, or was that just basic common sense? Every kid in the world knew what fire was like and how it felt; why should knowing it affect mana when it was called?

Because mana was neutral? No matter who called it, good or bad, mana would come and serve. It didn't matter what Element it was, mana was still mana, and it was still neutral. Like energy. Energy was what kept things going. Mana is what keeps magic flowing and it's also what made sure there was still life and matter. So change the mana, the energy, and different things would happen as a result.

Stopping it had a result, too. Telling mana to just halt in place like when he told it to stop in that nullifier, it made the whole thing just freeze up like ice. More than just ice; it froze so completely that it shattered to pieces when it hit the ground. That was manipulation of mana, telling it what to do for him.

Then there was the day he made a disc out of Earth mana and threw it at Chester. He'd just been playing with it, made shapes out of it, then stumbled across the idea of using mana as a physical weapon. He made the disc, then wondered if it were possible to do similar things with mana from other sources beyond the basic Elements. He never got around to trying it, but maybe he should, once he got the hang of his other spells so they didn't make him completely crash after a few castings. This must be the transformation of mana, pulling it from different sources to be used as something else.

So then what would conjuring be? Was it from pulling mana from within himself? Was it from adding the memory of what he wanted something to feel like, act like, **be** like? If the spell came entirely from himself, the mana, the Element, the way it worked and all, was that conjuring? Timmy looked over at his fairy godparents as they played with their wands, a luxury that had been put aside as they budgeted magic now restored thanks to Romi's charge ladder system. Wanda lifted hers with a smile and a cookie poofed into the air. Cosmo lifted his and a stuffed bear appeared before him. Both items were exchanged and Wanda cuddled the bear cheerfully as Cosmo munched down on his treat.

Timmy never bothered to question where those things came from when he wished for objects. Some of them were easy to figure out, Wanda would probably remark on how something was made or where it was made or how it worked, signs that a wished-for item was just summoned from one place to his hands. But little things -a cookie, a teddy bear, a blanket, a milkshake- were forever a mystery. Just a wave of the wand and there it was and no remark from Wanda on how it came to be. It just was. Was that conjuring with fairy magic? Could he mimic that with mana?

Cookies had mana, right? They were made of lots of things that had mana when they were alive; they were just transformed into the ingredients that made the cookie. And eating cookies could restore mana, so that mana had to come from somewhere; why not the cookie? It's why you ate it, right? And Timmy remembered the taste of cookies, the feel of it, the warmth of a fresh-baked chocolate chip morsel that incited another pang of homesickness. Was that memory the memory of a cookie's Element? Could it be possible to draw the mana from himself, add the memory of what he knew was a cookie and _create_ a cookie from nothing?

"Mm-mm! That was lovey-licious!" Cosmo cheered after finishing off the cookie, crumbs flying with each syllable, "I wish I had another one!"

Timmy shut his eyes, concentrating. The shape of the cookie, how it looked, how he remembered it from seeing it in his memories, from seeing it hanging in the air after Wanda poofed it there. Then the memories attached to the cookie; its warmth, its smell, its chewy texture and the sweetness of the chocolate chips, the comforting feeling of knowing he was loved when he received one. He put out a hand, picturing the cookie in his mind being placed into his palm. He focused on that image until he felt too tired to hold it in place. Maybe it wouldn't work... he was only human, after all. That kind of magic, that kind of ability, was probably reserved only for fairies.

So why was his hand feeling so warm?

"When the hell did you get a cookie?" Caleb suddenly asked as the boy opened his eyes slowly to stare at his hand. Cosmo cheered and snatched it up, chomping away without a care as Wanda blinked and went pale.

"Where did that come from?" she asked her husband.

"I did it! Ha-hah!" Timmy exclaimed happily and promptly fell back into a chair, "Geez, I'm tired. You were right, Caleb. Thinking about it takes a lot out of you." He grinned. "I'm going to practice every spell I have until I can do them like that!" He snapped his fingers and laughed. "I bet this is what Cousin Danny went through while learning how to do all of his ghost powers!" Wanda huffed and turned on the boy in sudden anger.

"Listen, Sport, you might be having fun with all this transforming and conjuring and stuff, but let's lay out the bottom line here!" she snapped and jerked a thumb at herself, "**We're** the fairy godparents here! Me and Cosmo! You wish it; **we** dish it! Leave_ that _kind of magic to us! You're supposed to be the offensive magic-user! Stick to attack spells!" Timmy stared up at her in shock, baffled by her reaction. What was _her_ problem? He thought she would be happy to see that he managed to do something cool on his own. Why was she mad? She flew lower, glaring at him straight in the eye. "Timmy, promise me you will **never** do something like that again. You will not make things like that just _appear_ ever again. Promise!" she growled. The boy shrank back, eyes wide.

"O-okay! I promise! Sheesh! Sorry! What'd I do?!" he exclaimed in confusion. The pink-haired fairy only sighed in relief and fluttered off to steal a bite of the cookie in Cosmo's hands, inciting a playful chase around the room for the last chunk of chocolate chip cookie. Caleb watched them zooming around and rubbed his head, puzzled.

"I will never understand fairies." he murmured.

* * *

Two days passed since Timothy Neogene began training at the Ivory Tower. Trixie looked up at the white marble building and took a deep breath. Wishing for answers was getting her more dead ends than she liked, but she wasn't one for giving up. Not when there was a mysterious magical boy dangling like bait on a hook in front of her nose. She smiled and fingered her pendant. Apollo seemed bored with her search, answering carefully worded questions with dull responses that not only gave her little in the way of clues but also made her want to fall asleep. She wished herself to Fairy World once, tried to get into their records and was immediately tossed out on her rear end, a first for her.

Finally, she went to Remy, careful to hide Apollo from the blonde. She cooed and purred and buttered him up with words that brought him out of his furious mood, and then asked to see if he had any data on Timothy. That immediately sent him back into a foul temper and she raced to avoid having something large and metal chucked in her direction. But he had to have something; he told Timothy during that school yard fight with the bladed trap that he had investigated his background and found something fishy about him. So data existed and was being held somewhere.

Determined to find out how Timothy died so that he could be avenged, she decided to try a different approach to getting her hands on that information. She wished for it. Apollo rolled his eyes, but he muttered a prayer, waved his wand and disappeared for an hour. When he returned, he held a disc in one hand.

"Here. Can you wish for something else now?" he had grumbled. She wished for an outfit to wear to the Ivory Tower. Something that would make her look her best and make the magic-user's eyes pop out. While he fluttered off to do that, she threw the disc into her computer and studied the files. With their contents, she was certain of discovering the boy's truth and bring peace to him at last.

Or at least turn the whole blackmail table around so someone else would be on the business end of it.

She walked up to the guard standing at the door and announced her name, adding in that she wanted to enter the Tower and talk to Timothy. The older man laughed and waved his hand at her, shaking his head.

"Stop it! You're killing me!" he guffawed, "You're the twentieth kid who's tried gettin' in here! Heh heh heh!" Trixie frowned and put her arms akimbo. She wasn't getting turned away that easily.

"Look, just announce my name to your superior or whatever. Timothy is going to want to see me!" she argued and her eye twitched slightly as the guard went on laughing. "Ugh, fine. I wish you'd take a nap under that tree over there." Trixie finally sighed and pointed at the tree. The guard followed her aim in laughter, allowing Apollo to shimmer brightly as the red pendant and grant the wish. In a burst of red smoke, the guard was camped under the tree, snoring his cares away. Trixie smiled winningly and pranced up to the front door of the Tower.

There was a speaker built next to it, along with a panel that looked rather complicated with its buttons and screens and little lens. Was that part of the Tower's entry security? She blinked at it, puzzled, then pressed the button for the speaker.

"Um, hello? Is anyone there?" she called into it and released the button, waiting.

_"This is Tower Control. Identify yourself."_ a woman's voice announced sternly in return. Trixie pressed the button again.

"My name is Trixie Tang, Queen of the A-List Populars. I want to speak to Timothy Neogene." she told the woman firmly. That should do it. Now, they'll open the door, let her in, and she can go...

_"Access denied. Go home, young lady, and do your homework. Timothy is far too busy for you."_ the woman replied primly. Trixie scowled at the speaker for a moment, then hurriedly wiped the expression from her face. Couldn't leave it like that for too long, it would ruin her makeup. She hit the intercom instead.

"Listen, miss. Timothy is going to want to see me. I have something he might be interested in." she began evenly.

_"Young lady, he is very busy. He has little time for visitors, especially unauthorized visitors. Please leave or you will be escorted from the premises."_

"Ahem." Trixie cleared her throat and brought out a printed copy of one of the files, "'Dental records of Timothy Neogene. Dated February 3rd on this year of 2001. Signed by personal orthodontist, Dr. Raine Sage. Date of entry into dental records nationwide, August 20th of the year 2002.' Gee, why would it take a whole year to put something like that into a computer?" She waited with the paper in her hand until the speaker came back on.

_"Trixie? Is that you?"_ the voice of Timothy Neogene called out. He sounded tired. What was he doing that made him sound so sleepy? _"Where did you get that?"_

"Let me in and I'll tell you. I had to get these from Remy so I could help you." she cooed into the speaker. There was a pause, and the front door finally opened for her, sliding aside with a futuristic hiss. She stepped inside and stopped as her breath was taken from her.

The Ivory Tower looked pretty on the outside, with its white marble walls, silver trim and the darling little engraving of Timmy Turner facing the school with his happy smile. But the interior was magnificent! Smooth white granite and marble floors and walls, tall columns of white and silver lining the paths formed by lush red carpeting, a huge fountain set in the middle of the main chamber... it was as if she had stepped into the opening hall of a multi-million-dollar company. The ceiling spanned far above her head, painted with images of forests and mountains and strangely dressed adventurers.

"Who are those people?" Trixie murmured as Apollo poofed free and looked around with her. He blinked and craned his head up to check out the paintings himself.

"Dunno. They look like they came from long, long ago." he replied softly, "Even further in the past than I can remember. And I'm over fifteen thousand years old." A bell tone sounded and Apollo immediately poofed back into the pendant as Trixie turned towards the source of the sound. A pair of doors opened in one wall, an elevator, and Timothy stepped out with his own fairy godparents in full view. She smiled and hurried up to him, clutching her handbag tightly.

"Timothy! I knew you'd want to see me!" she purred and his face turned a slight shade of pink. She grinned again and looked up at his fairies, her own pulling free again to stretch and greet the other godparents. "Is it okay for you to just let them follow you around like that?" Trixie asked in confusion.

"They're permanently bound to me, so I don't ever have to worry about Jorgen. And Hounder is allowed to know about them." the boy answered vaguely and rubbed his head, "So, about those records..." Trixie smiled and looped her arm around his, hoping her new blouse and skirt ensemble was working its wonders.

"Oh, let's find a nice place to sit and talk, okay? This place is amazing! Can you tell me all about it?" she cooed, twirling a lock of her hair around one finger. The brunet blinked at her, puzzled, then sighed and nodded, leading her to a second elevator, this one made with clear glass walls. They stepped in and gazed out at the building as it lifted them through the floors.

"The Ivory Tower was built as a meeting place for the S-List and members of the Hounder Organization and the Archives of the Twin Blades." he told her softly, "Our main concerns are the destruction of the Dark Spires and the development of my magical abilities." He gave a small yawn and shook his head to try to stay awake. "That's the lab where certain experiments are done, that's the training room, where I was practicing some spells when you showed up..." Trixie tugged at his arm excitedly.

"Really?! How cool! Can you show me some spells? Please?!" she pleaded and the two fairies hovering around him shot her disapproving glares. "Why are your fairies so mean?" she added with a pout. Timothy put a hand to his head with a sigh.

"It's not that. They're just a little worried about me. I've been doing a lot of training and I really haven't gotten much rest." he explained and frowned, "They don't get it; I have to learn how to use my powers so I can do a better job of stopping Crocker's plans and Remy's towers. If I don't, then more people are going to get hurt. They could even get killed! And it'll be my fault."

"Don't think like that. You'll be a great hero!" Trixie told him honestly, "You saved Apollo and you took out those two Spires. You're doing a wonderful job so far."

"But that last Spire took down one of my closest friends, and all because I wasn't careful." Timothy told her seriously, "It just proves that I'm only a Hero-in-training." He stepped off the lift with her and entered the training room, the Asian girl tagging along behind him. She looked around, taking in the sight of damaged walls, broken machines and smoking bits of rubble. Her eyes went wide as she turned back to the sleepy-looking teen in dark clothes.

"You did all this?!" she exclaimed, her fairy whistling in appreciation. Timothy grinned.

"Part of it. Cosmo and Wanda have been training with me, so some of that is their doing." he answered and Apollo flew up to them in awe.

"You guys can dish out some **real** damage! How do you do it?! Fairy magic hasn't been this destructive since Cosmo covered Pompeii in lava!" he cried. Wanda huffed and folded her arms over her chest as her husband rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Yes, well. It takes a lot of battling to make sure we don't get captured by those fairy traps!" she declared, "And it's not easy when they're all set to chase after Cosmo's stupid butt!"

"Hey! It's not all my fault!" Cosmo shot back irritably.

"Yes it was! You're the one who stood there like an idiot and let Crocker run off with your DNA sample!" the pink-haired fairy snapped and he resumed his sheepish smile.

"Oh, yeah! I guess it **is** my fault then! Heh heh!" he laughed. Trixie blinked up at them in confusion, then tugged on the brunet's sleeve.

"Show me a spell, please? I'll tell you all about what I learned if you do!" she bargained and he sighed in exasperation.

"Fine. But I really am serious about those things. If you have any files, I definitely want them." he told her, "I can't have Remy snooping around in my history. It'll ruin everything!" He looked out at the room and frowned. "Target droid! Passive mode!" he called out and a small metal door in the far wall opened, letting one little robot toddle out. Trixie waited expectantly, eager to see the same display of power that she had witnessed in her room long ago. What was it that he called it? _Photon_?

"Are you going to do that light one? The one that blew up the disc in my room?" she asked him. Timothy gave her a puzzled look.

"_Photon_? I was thinking more along the line of _Bulla Scintillare_." he remarked, "You want to see that one instead?" Trixie threw her arms up excitedly.

"Do the biggest, best one you've got!" she cheered, "Something really awesome!" Timothy tilted his head thoughtfully, then smiled.

"Oh, you want something fancy?" he chuckled and winked, "Only the best for Trixie! Okay, here goes!" He stepped forward and threw out his hand. "I've been working on this one ever since I learned I do magic differently than my teacher." the brunet remarked, _"Lustrare Spiralis!"_

Trixie watched in awe as a galactic spiral of lightning bloomed around the target robot, shimmering and crackling as though thousands of stars were orbiting the machine. Then it all collapsed violently into the droid before exploding in a mass of electrical power that flung parts of the robot all over the place. She screamed as one piece came straight for them, then gasped as a waterfall showered down before her, shimmering blue like crystalline glass. Timothy held out a hand to show off a matching colored shard floating over his hand.

"Sorry. That got a little out of hand. Luckily, I mastered the mana shield so it doesn't drain me so badly when I put it up." he told her in embarrassment, "But that's one of my strongest spells, so far. I'm working on a few more, but it's hard work thinking up all the parts for them."

"That was amazing! Wow!" Trixie cheered, "With that much magic power, I bet you could tear down a whole Dark Spire on your own!" Timothy winced and shook his head.

"Not with a field of nullifiers surrounding it. Just one of them near me totally throws me for a loop and I can't even conjure up a Light orb." he explained and dropped the shield, giving her a stern look. "Now, about those records..." Trixie held up another printout.

"Oh, you mean this?" she asked sweetly and began reading aloud from it, "'Record of Timothy's charitable contributions to the Archive Museum of Historical and Mythological Culture. Dated March 3rd of the year 1996. Date of entry to online records, August 20th of the year 2002.' Huh, it's the exact same date as your dental records. Isn't that funny?" She yanked the paper just out of Timothy's reach as he lunged for it. "Hey, hey! I'll give it to you! I've got the whole disc of these things with me, but it's only a copy of Remy's records." she pointed out and gave him a catty smile, "I'll give you the disc and all its information, but you have to do something for me."

"Oh, not again." Timothy sighed, one hand going over his face as he uttered a soft groan, "Fine, fine. What do you want?"

"Make me a part of the S-List. I want to stay close to you for protection. Remy's still ticked at the fact that I got Apollo back and if he finds out that I swiped a copy of his records, there's no telling what he could do to me or my fairy godparent." Trixie told him and sidled up to him, tracing little hearts onto the front of his shirt. "As long as I'm with you, I'll be safe. Please don't let him do anything bad to me and Apollo. I can still keep looking for the data to avenge you, but I can't do it alone. If we work together, I'm sure we can give you some peace." she added softly, "Maybe if I help you, it'll make up for those times I could have helped Timmy but didn't. If it weren't for the social ladder and all its rules, maybe I could have really been friends with him. Maybe he'd still be alive; I'm the reason he climbed that stupid jungle gym, so it's my fault he... he..." She uttered a soft sob and hugged the brunet, hiding her face as she began to cry.

"I had hoped she wouldn't do that." Apollo muttered, folding his arms over his chest, "She's going to ruin her makeup and then she's going to want to wish it back to normal."

"Hey, don't cry. I'm pretty sure that kid wouldn't have blamed you for it. The whole thing was just an accident." Timothy stammered helplessly and looked up at the trio of fairies, "Cosmo, Wanda, what do I do?"

"I don't like it, but it's probably the best idea to let her join the S-List." Wanda conceded irritably, "If only so we can keep an eye on her. This looking for information for us just so she can get something from you deal smells like a rotten trap, but we don't have much choice." Trixie lifted her head to glare at the fairy, then pulled a handkerchief from her handbag to dab at her eyes.

"Oh, I ruined my makeup! Apollo, I wish it was the way it was before I started boo-hooing." the Popular remarked. The flame-colored fairy rolled his eyes but lifted his wand anyway, poofing the girl's face back to normalcy. She giggled and cuddled the brunet closer. "So that's all! Just make me an S-List Popular; I'll keep pretending to be an A-List kid and see what other pieces of info I can get from Remy." she repeated her demand and Timothy sighed.

"As you wish." he grumbled, "Now, the disc." She picked it out of her handbag and held it up, grinning as he plucked it from her fingers and studied it carefully. "So Remy collected those files about me and put them all on a single disc?" he asked. Trixie nodded, pulling back to better face the boy.

"Yeah. According to the disc, the investigation into your past was code-named Black Hound, and it was gathered from all kinds of sources. People he bribed that were close to the Hounder Organization, private investigators sent to interview and search through public records, his own hacking of the private records using his fairy's magic; all the data he collected was put into that one collection." she remarked and furrowed her brows slightly in thought, "And yet, he only got a little bit of data, mostly records of all the good things you've done. Strangely enough, all of those records have the same time-stamp on them. August 20th of the year 2002. Hmm. That seems familiar."

"Must be a crazy sense of déjà vu. It probably means nothing." Timothy replied hurriedly and pulled the girl along by the arm, "C'mon! As a new member of the S-List, you _have_ to try out some of our after-school snacks!" Trixie followed along, trying to keep pace as her mind scrambled to snatch onto her previous thoughts.

"Huh? But, the time-stamps! The dates!" she exclaimed, "I just want to know why they're all the same date!"

"Sloppy typing! It's not important! Let's go before they stop serving chocolate shakes!" Timothy called back in forced cheerfulness. Trixie sighed and shook her head. Well, maybe the dates really weren't that important. But if that was the case, why was she still getting that weird feeling like there was something pivotal about that date?


	7. Chapter 7

7

Chester skated past the third targeted Dark Spire, counting the number of traps blinking on the detector's screen. Five days passed since the unveiling of the Ivory Tower, since Timothy was pulled from the S-List group to do high-intensity training and testing to see just how far his magic could go on purely his imagination. And with the addition of Trixie Tang to their ranks, the group began to grow restless, edgy, and a little testy.

Tootie had not been happy with Timothy's announcement of Trixie's joining. She fumed and scowled and throttled a houseplant, then disappeared into a separate training room that began to quake from having things thrown about with such ferocity that everyone assumed she'd just been using Andromeda as a magical boost to her throwing skills. No one dared to go in to check, not unless they wanted to see first-hand what skills were being taught to her by Vicky.

Caleb had glared at her, then at Timothy, then at Tootie as she left in her huff before pulling his hands over his face and making a sound that was pretty close to exasperated. Muttering something along the lines of 'I hate it when the game changes', he left the room in search of someone to train the girl in intelligence gathering. He'd been somewhat impressed by her ability to gain access to information they couldn't get themselves and promptly designated her as the espionage agent. He didn't explain what he meant by 'the game' but then who knew what that crazy angel was talking about half the time he opened his mouth?

A.J. locked himself in the lab, refusing to face the girl after she twirled in and announced that she wanted him to dedicate his hardware into the tracing of records so as to search for Timothy's true past. His main concerns were still the examination of the data on the stolen switch and his continued efforts to prove that Timmy's fall from the jungle gym had not been a true accident. Anything else was allocated to his assistants, various androids brought in from the Archives of the Twin Blades for the purpose of doing jobs that he didn't need to study intensely at that particular moment. Trixie's demand didn't even warrant a thought in his mind. Timothy was a New York immortal; what more was there to know about him?

Sanjay spent his time demanding that Elmer maintain the illusion of joy that was the primary duty of being stand-in Timmy. Having Trixie around was distracting, especially since she kept insisting that the hat should be put into a memorial museum or something. He threatened once to break one of her nails and Timothy spent the next fifteen minutes learning to manage two sets of the mana shield while they were separated to prevent an all-out war in the meeting room. Elmer just sighed and complained somewhat bitterly that he would still have preferred to just take the hat off for a minute or so, if only to relax and not worry about having someone hang him for daring to wear it.

Chester bailed; there was no way he could take being in the same room as Trixie Tang, knowing how much Timmy had fawned over her and seeing her do the same thing to Timothy. So when the brunet declared that they were to tear down the Spire that stood several blocks away from the second one they destroyed, he happily grabbed the trap detector and rushed out to do recon. He didn't even bother to wait for the burst of _Revive_ that either Timothy or Caleb would have given him for protection. He just wanted out, and every day since Trixie joined he'd grab the device and run. There was no way in hell he'd stay around to see what the girl was going to try to do between hours of training just to jump the poor Goth kid.

"Let's see here. Current ratio is two nullifiers for every three fairy traps and two destroyers." Chester murmured to himself and looked up at the ominous Spire, "Wonder why it changes so often? Is Crocker expecting a fairy to just fly up here and let itself get captured or something?" He pulled up to a small shop and poked his head in to see if there was any chance of food being available. Being poor meant that a majority of his meals came from whatever he could salvage from people's garbage collections or was found flattened on the street; ever since he was elevated to S-List status, meals were easier to get, and far more tasty. And the feeling of having a sizable allowance sitting in his pocket, ready for him to dig through to get anything he wanted, was just plain nice.

Still, it didn't stop him from making his special chip dip.

"Hello?" he called out and entered the shop, looking around at the aisles filled with snacks and assorted items. A grocery store, small; probably a Mom and Pop Shop. But there didn't seem to be anyone around. Chester stood in the center of one aisle, tapping his fingers against his teeth in thought. Most of the buildings around a Dark Spire seemed void of life, just like Timothy had said that the air was empty of magic. Maybe it was the same with this store. He collected a bag of chips and a soda, left some money at the cash register and left, worried about the condition of the people who ran the store. Maybe the Dark Spires did more than just drain magic from the city; maybe the fact that they were there made Dimmsdale so bleak that people just didn't have the heart to do anything? But, they were already like that when Timmy died, so it was probably just making them worse.

"Timmy, if you could just see what's happened here since you left... Dude, you'd probably be seriously pissed off." he sighed and managed a sad smile, "Knowing you, you'd probably come up with some lame, crazy scheme to fix things so that the city would liven up again. And knowing you, it'd actually work." He looked skyward as he skated along the outer edges of the Dark Spire's lot. "Hey, man. If you can see us down here, can you put in a good word with the Big Guy and see if he can look out for us? 'Specially Timothy, seeing as how run-down the poor dude's gotten from all that experimenting and junk." he remarked and laughed, "Man, you won't believe what Toots has done to herself to be sure she's able to help the kid! If you were around, I'd bet you'd have your jaw hit the floor!"

The detector beeped suddenly, a racing stream of blips that seemed too alarming to ignore. Chester halted and dug out the device, studying the screen in confusion. One by one, then more at a time, the shining markers that served to identify the different units began to wink out, numbers dwindling faster and faster as the boy watched in sudden alarm.

"Hey! What the heck's going on?!" he cried and scrambled to grab a phone from his backpack. A second, more threatening alert sounded, blaring into the air as the Spire's hatches began opening, ground units marching out to close in on him. Chester froze and glanced down at the detector. Arrowheads; crap, those were the symbols for destroyers! With a panicked yell, he turned and shot away from the lot, skating as fast as his board could go. Forget the phone, forget the numbers, just move!

He passed the abandoned shop again, turned and raced for the door. Maybe he could hide inside; surely those robots wouldn't think to look _inside_ a building for him, right? Chester crouched down beside the doors, listening to the tromping of feet as the ground destroyers scuttled by a few minutes later. Crazy. He wasn't even of a magical nature and he had those things chasing after him. Why? What triggered the traps?

"I don't have any fairy stuff on me. And no way do I have Cosmo's DNA on my clothes; I don't hug anybody's fairies." he murmured, puzzled by the reactions, "So what gives?" He dug into his backpack, continuing the search for a phone. The blonde finally pulled it from a pocket and flipped it open, scrolling through the menu of numbers until it hit on the speaker phone for the Ivory Tower. He entered it, then waited anxiously as the sounds of mechanical footsteps went on ceaselessly outside the little shop. This was new, this was different; it could be dangerous trying to attack **this** tower.

_"Ivory Tower. This is Caleb, scholar to the Archive of the Twin Blades. How may I help you?"_ the response was rattled off in a false cheerfulness that seemed to be the redhead's best defense against annoying things.

"Hey, it's me! I need some backup over here! I've got practically every ground troop the Spire's got coming after my butt!" Chester whispered into the phone, gripping it tightly as he listened and hoped the little robots couldn't hear him.

_"What? Chester? Those things actually came after you?!"_ the angel replied in shock, _"Where are you now?"_

"Trapped inside some Mom and Pop Shop near the Spire's lot. I can hear them all marching around outside. I think they're still looking for me." the blonde returned and checked the detector. "They're all destroyers, no nullifiers or traps or anything."

_"Timothy just got out of training. I'll send him in to help, just keep him alerted if any nullifiers get into the area. Hang tight."_ Caleb returned and Chester could hear him relay the message to the brunet in the background. He must have left the phone on, probably to be sure he was still on the other end. The brunet let out a yelp, then promptly made a wish to be taken to a point closest to him without getting dumped in a nullification field. _"He's on the way."_ the angel returned to the phone line.

"I'm gonna see how the units are doing." the blonde murmured and cautiously stood to peek over the lower edge of the storefront window. The streets were covered in ground destroyers, the mechanical canine-like units swarming over everything that looked like it could hide someone his size. They marched into alleys, chomped into dumpsters, scanned bushes and trees, all in attempts to find him. "Dude! They're all over the place! Man, they seriously want me found." he remarked in surprise.

_"Well, **don't** be found. Timothy's touched down a block or so away from you, so he should be showing up in a few minutes. How are the numbers?"_

"Before they started disappearing on me? Two to three to two, usual formula. Everything looked normal, until something happened and the detector began to lose sight of the units. Then it filled up with destroyers and that's when I got the idea I was gonna get seriously screwed if I didn't bail." Chester replied and smiled, "I'm glad they don't pick up phone signals."

_"Don't jinx yourself."_

Or maybe he already had. One of the ground units had been marching by as the blonde looked around at the others. It turned to scan the window just as Chester thought to check closer to his hiding place for stray units. The two locked gazes for only a split second before the blonde yelped and ducked, and the destroyer uttered a shrill alarm before smashing the spikes on its head against the storefront.

"Oh, crap! They found me! Stupid mutts!" Chester yelled and shoved the phone into his backpack, slinging it on as he ran for a door in the back of the store. Maybe he could escape into the alley. He checked the door; locked, and it was one of those doors that only opened with keys. What kind of untrusting shop was this?! With an exasperated grunt, the blonde began working at the wire of his braces. Caleb, Timothy and Tootie might have magic working for them, and A.J. had his technology and brainpower, but Chester had the amazing powers of his braces. The damn things could do just about anything under the sun, provided they were tweaked first by A.J.

He slid one of the wires free and inserted it into the keyhole, jiggling it around until the mythril finally decided to listen and click into place. Good thing, too; more of the units caught onto what that first one was up to and they were making good time smashing through the shop. Another twist of the wire and the door flung open.

"Sweet!" Chester laughed and straightened the wire, sliding it back into his mouth before darting out into the dark alley behind the shop.

Units swamped the place, providing little room for sneaking around and getting past without being seen. So much for going at it without the threat of being noticed. Chester sighed harshly as he shook his head. Somehow, Crocker had caught onto what he and the Others were doing, must have connected their wandering by the Spires with the eventual destruction of it. Was Timothy onto something when he said that he saw cameras in the Spire that time? But how would cameras inside the tower let the old man know about the kids outside and far away from the thing?

Unless there were microphones in there too. Oh, man, and they'd been chattering back and forth with the Fenton Phones the whole time! They'd been calling each other by name, too! All Crocker would have to do is hear the name 'A.J.' just once and all of Timmy's friends would be bent over and screwed up the rear!

He skidded to a stop, gasping as a change in direction to throw off a set of units brought him face to face with another group. They blocked the exit of the alley, glowing visors all locked onto him. Chester stepped back warily, searching the area for another venue of escape. When was Timothy going to show up? He could really use some of that mana magic right now!

No fire escapes he could easily reach, dumpsters were death traps now, and no way could he go back the way he came, not with another pack of these little monsters planted there and waiting. Growling in frustration, Chester snatched up a rusty piece of pipe and brandished it at the units.

"Okay, you walking tin cans! I might not have magic, I might not be the smartest guy in the world, and I might be made fun of by the school system, government and every girl I freaking met since grade school!" he yelled defiantly at the approaching squad of destroyers, "But I sure as hell don't plan on making myself an easy target for your hunchbacked boss! You want a piece of me?! Come and get some!"

They sort of went for it. The first row of destroyers merely opened their jaws as wide as they could and a sort of nozzle protruded from within their little bodies. There was a hiss and suddenly the air began to smell sweet, the fragrance thick and heavy. Baffled, Chester backed away further, then yawned as he began growing sleepy. The pipe suddenly seemed too heavy, so he let it slip from his fingers. Blinking drowsily at the group of machines, he managed a scowl of indignation.

"Aw, fer the love of Pete, that's cheatin'!" he slurred and finally succumbed to the gas that flooded the tiny alley space. Mission completed, the destroyers stopped the nozzles and retracted them, waiting for new orders. A sudden gust of wind passed over the alley, dissipating what remained of the blanket of chloroform as a second blonde teen walked past the attentive ground units.

"Well, well. It seems that old windbag was right about something for once." Remy murmured to a purple peacock that stood at his side, "There really was a rat sniffing around my establishments. Looks like I'll have to take care of this little problem."

"There is no need to be violent about this. It's so very unsexy." the peacock remarked with a roll of his eyes, "Whatever happened to those good old days where we just had our adventures and competed with the boy and that idiot for supremacy and the love of the beautiful and slightly-less-sexy-than-me Wanda?"

"Forget them. Fairies who let their godchildren die in their care are severely punished." Remy answered with a cruel grin, "They're probably wasting away in Fairy World's most disgusting prison and thinking the whole tragic thing was their fault. Besides, if people would just do as I say, then we wouldn't have to bother with the mess of having my Dark Spires perfected and spread over the nation. Nay, the world!"

"Ah, my beloved Wanda, doomed to spend eternity with an ungrateful moron in a dank prison cell. What a waste of your radiance!" the peacock sighed miserably as Remy peered at the crumpled form on the ground.

"Hmm. This might actually work to my advantage. If I were to let that mongrel know I have his little ally, then maybe I could gain control of him. Lord knows he has that whole super-hero complex rattling around in his little brain." he commented and smiled brightly, "Ah, excellent! A bribe! I can always tell him that the price for the loser here will be all the data that concerns him, the real identity of Timothy Neogene!"

* * *

"Where** is** he?" Timmy growled into the Fenton Phones as he and his fairy godparents searched the alleys and buildings around the third target site. An hour of searching and still no sign of the blonde.

_"I'm trying to trace the phone, but it's surrounded by something that's interfering with the satellite signals. I can't pick it out with the GPS."_ Caleb returned worriedly, _"I lost contact with him when he mentioned that the units found him, but I don't have anything else after that. He must have accidentally hung up the phone."_

The tower stood above him like some massive vulture waiting for the city to wither and die so it could feast. Timmy glared up at it, then purposely turned his back on the thing. The mood he was in now, he'd probably take Trixie's words to heart and try to bring the whole thing down on his own with magic. This wasn't good. Everything had been going smoothly so far; why did it suddenly change for the worse? What made Crocker suddenly decide to go after his non-magical, fairyless friends? It wasn't as if he knew that Chester and the Others were helping him, right? Unless, something was paying attention when he and Danny were relaying information back and forth over the Phones during the second Spire attack...

"The cameras." he groaned despairingly as the memory surfaced in his mind, that accursed lens staring at him as he made calls to his friends about the status of the mission. His fault; it was his fault that the destroyers went after Chester. If anything happened to him...

"Timmy! I found something! It's Chester's jacket!" Wanda called out from further down the street. Snapping out of his dour mood, the brunet raced to join the pink-haired fairy and check out her discovery. She pointed at the soft blue sports jacket tied around a lamppost and he reached out to take the letter pinned to its front.

"_'Reveal to everyone in Dimmsdale the truth about yourself, mongrel, or Brace-Face will be joining Beaver Boy in the afterlife. After all, friends deserve to be with each other and I hate having tragedy keep these two apart, but I'd hate it worse if tragedy brought them back together.'_" Timmy read aloud and the chill ran down his spine again. This was serious! But Remy wouldn't... he couldn't... this was a kid, for crying out loud!

A very rich kid. A powerful kid. A kid willing to destroy innocent fairies to get his way. Really, what was the value of one human life in his eyes?

Another chill.

"Timmy, you look paler than Death. What's wrong?" Wanda murmured as Cosmo flew in and announced he found a sale on beef jerky in the shop Chester had used for cover. The brunet shut his eyes, swallowing down a slowly rising terror as he tried to gather his wits again. Calm, calm, meditate. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, brought mana up to relax himself.

Remy wouldn't dare hurt Chester. No one in Dimmsdale could be _that_ cold-blooded. Chester was of no threat to him; it was Timmy Remy wanted, the one who could tear down the Spires and humiliated him time and again by destroying the anti-magic devices in school and thwarting his plans to sabotage his own schemes. As long as he had the power to destroy the Spires, Remy would keep Chester in one piece in his efforts to contain him. But **where** was Chester? Where was he being held?

"Cosmo, Wanda, I wish you could show me where Chester is right now." he told the fairies. They looked suddenly uncomfortable.

"Here? So close to the Dark Spire?" Wanda asked hesitantly, "Timmy, we're pushing our luck as it is with being out here like this, and with Cosmo around, too. The fairy traps haven't caught onto the fact that he's here, and if we use fairy magic, who's to say that won't have **us** swamped with units like Chester?" Timmy sighed and nodded. That's right. They were too close to the tower. No way could he make a wish here. He collected the jacket, reported it to Caleb and began making his way out of the area. Once they were far enough from the Spire, he'd make the wish again.

It took a half hour of walking, but the fairies finally judged it safe and Timmy repeated his wish. The couple lifted their wands and watched in shock as the stars' glow flickered erratically, then died. Timmy blinked at them.

"Did your wands run out of magic already?" he asked in surprise, "I haven't made that many wishes yet!" Cosmo tapped his wand and shook his head with a frown.

"Nope. Nullifier. It killed the wish." he remarked as Wanda nodded.

"Wherever Chester is, he's surrounded by a nullification field. Remy must have figured that you'd try to use magic to free him." she added and took on a worried expression, "Who knows what he might try to do if he learned you had us?"

"Put two and two together and learn who I am, probably." Timmy muttered and scratched his head, "Man, how are we supposed to find him now?"

_"Timmy? I just got a working signal on Chester's phone. It's on the move, but I don't want to assume it's him."_ Caleb suddenly remarked over the Fenton Phones. He tapped at the earpiece to activate the microphone.

"Good thing. I tried to use a wish to locate him just now. Nullifier field killed the magic. Wherever he is, he doesn't have the phone and he's immune to magical rescue." the brunet told him and sighed, "Now what? How do we find out where Chester is so we can save him?"

_"We'll figure it out at the Tower. Come back before something happens to you. I hate not being able to control things that are beyond my reach."_ the android told him and Timmy made the wish to return to the Ivory Tower.

--

The wall monitor of the Ivory Tower's computer room displayed a map of Dimmsdale, a blinking red spot traveling along one of the roads as it made its way through the commercial district of the city. The S-List watched with collective irritation, basically helpless to locate Chester. Caleb scowled at the map and folded his arms over his chest.

"Great. Now we can't make a move against the Spire. Until we get Chester back in our ranks, there's no way we can attack it without getting him hurt as a repercussion." he grumbled. A.J. tapped at the keys of his laptop, a seriously focused expression on his face.

"I made some adjustments to his braces after the wires were replaced with that strange metal you gave him." he remarked, "I always modify them when he gets back from Dr. Bender. Those braces have helped him, me and Timmy out of some jams in the past." He maneuvered the mouse around, clicking on windows and tapping in commands. "One of those adjustments was a small chip that I implanted into one of the tooth supports. If I can just trigger it, we should be able to get a working signal from it." The android lifted an eyebrow at the words.

"It won't get any kind of interference?" he asked and the African-American teen shook his head.

"Nah. It reflects signals, not give them out. If there's a radio tower anywhere and I can hack it to send out a specific frequency, we'll be able to use it as radar to find him. Luckily for us, Dimmsdale's got several towers. I'll just go through their backdoors, send out the signals on all of them and see if any of them touch off the chip." the boy replied and lit up in triumph, "And they just did! Hah! I am **such** a genius! Now to triangulate the data, narrow down the locations and..." He tapped another set of keys and a second light appeared on the map taking up a wall of the room. "Chester's being held at Remy's mansion. We just have to break in and get him out."

"Ugh! The nullifier hall!" Timmy growled angrily, "He must have locked Chester in the same room as Apollo!"

"Who's Apollo?" Elmer asked as Trixie walked into the room. She halted, eyes wide, and looked towards the brunet with a semi-frantic stare.

"No one important right now." he returned and caught the Asian girl's look of relief, "All we need to know is that Chester is in Remy's mansion, trapped in that stupid room at the end of that stupid hall, and I can't get through it to help him!" He clenched his fist tightly, growling in frustration. "The last time I made the run through that thing, I almost passed out! If Wanda hadn't caught me, I would have smashed into the wall and woken Remy up!" Sanjay folded his arms over his chest and huffed indignantly, giving Trixie a sidelong glare.

"Our friend Chester would not have been in this awful situation if he had been able to receive full magical blessings from Caleb and Timothy before he left." he remarked icily, "And the only reason he always left the Ivory Tower on his own like that is because of Miss Popularity over here!" Trixie blinked and pointed at herself.

_"Excuse me?!"_ she declared in outrage, "Are you blaming **me** for this?!" The Hindu teen turned on her in matched fury.

"Yes, I am! It is **your** fault that Chester was taken as a prisoner of war! Now our best comrade for rescuing him cannot even get close because our enemy has filled his halls with nullifiers!" he yelled back, "You are nothing but the Shiva of the Others! Because of **you**, Timmy Turner climbed the jungle gym and fell to his death! Because of **you**, we have a possibility of losing Chester! How many more of our group do you intend to lead to a slaughter, Miss Black Widow?!"

"Sanjay! That's enough!" Timmy snapped at him, stepping between the two teens with Cosmo and Wanda flanking him, stern expressions on their faces. Trixie was shaking from the words, eyes huge and filled with tears as her face drained of color. She actually shrank from the collection of angry faces; Elmer, A.J., even Tootie, all glared at her accusingly. "I've told you countless times before that Timmy Turner's death was an accident and nothing more! It doesn't matter why he went up the stupid bars, all that matters is that he was careless enough to not watch how he fell and avoid breaking his own neck!"

"Timmy went up there to impress her, got pushed by Francis and died!" Tootie snarled, whipping the dagger from the sheath at her side and aiming it at the Asian. Romi squealed in shock, her pigtails poofing out in alarm at her godchild's actions. "It's **her** fault that every kid in Dimmsdale is miserable and ready to die for him! I say we pay blood for blood and let her take a fall, too!" A circle of light bloomed at her feet as the bracelets glowed and the dagger took on a white aura. Timmy stared at her in shock, then turned and grabbed onto Trixie's shoulder.

_"Mana Surrogatus!"_ he cried while the wind rushed around Tootie's small form. The S-List watched in confusion as what appeared to be ghostly images of Timmy and the quivering Asian girl seemed to swap places over them. The images faded away less than a heartbeat later.

_"Release the light! Photon!"_ Tootie yelled out, releasing the spell targeting her rival. Her eyes went wide in astonishment and horror when she spotted the burst of light erupt from within Timmy's body instead of the other girl's, as she had wanted. Why?!

The brunet dropped to one knee with a gasp of pain, clutching the front of his shirt as the ghostly images rose above him and Trixie, then faded again. Caleb watched the whole scene in annoyance, shaking his head at the sheer stupidity of the collection of humans.

"Are you done trying to murder one another?" he asked irritably.

"Timothy?! What happened?! I didn't mean to hit you! I was aiming for that stupid girl!" Tootie exclaimed fearfully, "Oh! Are you okay?! Do you need healing?!" He shook his head, struggling to his feet as his fairies gathered close to support him. Shooting a glare at the young Goth, he finished catching his breath, casting _First Aid_ on himself in the process.

"Never use those spells on someone out of anger." he lectured, "Don't waste them trying to _kill_ somebody! I've never had to do it myself and I definitely don't want **you **to do it!" He straightened and shook himself off, holding one arm out as a barricade between the group and Trixie, who looked up at him in awe and gratitude. "Attack spells lock onto the mana signature of a target. All I did was mask my mana with Trixie's and the other way around for her. The spell locked onto me because it tracked Trixie's mana, and I had it copied." he added, "I may be dead tired after all my training every day, but those tests and experiments Caleb has me running through actually taught me a lot of things." Sanjay huffed irately.

"It does not change the fact that it is her fault Chester is being held hostage." he grumbled, "What are we to do about the rescue when you cannot access the room in which he is kept?" Timmy sighed and shook his head slowly.

"I don't know. Cosmo, Wanda and Romi can't go through it; they'll die from the exposure. Tootie and I can't go through it; we'll pass out halfway through from the effects of the field. Only non-magical beings can walk by a nullifier without going wonky." he remarked and cringed, "The only option we have is for you guys to go in and save him yourself. I can provide cover for you, get you past the guards and all, but once we reach the hall, I'm out."

Caleb only half-listened to the conversation and planning being done by the S-List. He watched the Asian girl pull away from them and silently hurry to the doors. She was up to something, and chances were good that he'd have to get involved. Plucking the giant fork he carried often from its resting place against the wall, he set his mind to the image of his office and focused.

No one gave the vanishing puff of white smoke a second thought, the teens were far too intent on hammering out a rescue plan.

--

Trixie hurried out of the Ivory Tower, trying to quiet her sobs as she rubbed at her eyes. It really was her fault, wasn't it? Timmy's death, Chester's capture, the misery of the children of Dimmsdale; all because she was forbidden fruit to the Heart of Dimmsdale. If she had just cared a little less about the social order, about being popular and pretty and having the adoration of everyone in school...

Well, it wasn't going to make things better now. All she could do was try to make up for it by helping Timothy restore magic to the city. Straightening herself up, she tossed her hair back, sniffed once and took a deep breath. She was still a Popular and, as far as Remy knew, the Queen of the A-List. She could march right over to his mansion, sweet-talk him into getting her anything she desired if it meant she'd be his girlfriend again, then ransack his mansion to get Chester out of there. Simple, easy; her perfect looks guaranteed success. Apollo poofed out of his pendant disguise and gave her a worried look.

"Trixie? Are you okay? All those things they said... you know it's not true. It's not your fault and you know Timmy would never hold his death against you." he assured her, "I bet he even forgives you for it and would say it himself! None of it is your fault! They're just mad because of everything that's happening and they decided to take it out on you." Trixie smiled up at him and shook her head.

"No, it's okay, Apollo. I know it's my fault. If it weren't for me, Timmy wouldn't have climbed that stupid jungle gym to begin with. So I'm going to prove to him that I can care about others and put someone other than myself first." she declared and looked herself over, judged her usual outfit adequate enough and lifted her voice, "I wish we were at Remy's house!" The fairy sighed and unsheathed his wand, waving it to grant the wish and making them vanish in a burst of red smoke.

When they appeared in front of Caleb instead of on Remy's front lawn, both fairy and girl panicked, Apollo shooting behind Trixie in an attempt to hide himself. The redhead rolled his eyes as he sat in his chair at his desk.

"Oh, please. Spare me the bland lie you're attempting to put together in your head." he remarked dryly, "I'm an ally of Fairy World, so you are perfectly safe in having me know of your relationship." He pointed above his head. "I suppose I should have mentioned the little device I installed in the Ivory Tower after doing some engineering with the nullifier devices. Using A.J.'s knowledge and Timothy's skills, I managed to create a prototype mana field that stimulates magical properties. Basically, an anti-nullifier field meant to overpower small nullifier devices within a short range." He shrugged. "Not very powerful, but it's a start. I currently had it set to redirect wishes to other locales back here. Mostly because I knew you'd try a little stunt like running off for a one-woman rescue of Chester." Trixie scowled and stamped her foot down angrily.

"How dare you try to stop me!" she yelled at him, "I have to go and save that guy! You don't understand!" She waved her arms excitedly. "That boy is one of Timmy's friends and...!" The redhead held up a hand to quiet her.

"I said, spare me." he repeated and pushed a briefcase on the desk towards her, "I never said I was going to stop you. Rather, you should take this with you when you visit Buxaplenty." He clicked the clasp of the briefcase and Trixie blinked at a folded piece of black fabric within its confines. "Pull it out." She obeyed, picking up the fabric and watching it fall open in her hands. She held it up, staring at the shimmering black outfit. It looked much like a skintight body-suit, sleeveless and leggings that looked like they were shorts cut a little too high. It felt smooth under her fingers, but also slightly strange, as though something sturdier than thread was woven into the fabric.

"What is this? It looks a little," she began and gave it a somewhat repulsed look, "slutty." Caleb huffed, green eyes flashing irritably.

"Excuse me, but it's only a prototype, after all. I haven't gotten around to having A.J. help me finish the accompanying armor to go with it." he grumbled and waved a hand at it, "What you hold in your hands is the result of one of many experiments and tests young Mr. Ibrahim and I have been conducting using my own magitech clothes as a basis. Essentially, this is a mythril-threaded magitech body-suit to be worn with a suit of armor, all of which is designed to protect the non-magical members of the S-List from physical harm." Trixie gave him a blank stare and he sighed. "It keeps you from getting hurt. Mythril is a very strong metal, especially when refined with dwarven arts. Light as a feather, stronger than dragon scales, nothing less than a specifically designed cutting weapon can penetrate that suit." he clarified.

"It's like a bulletproof vest, but for my whole body?" Trixie asked and the redhead lit up.

"Yes! It's just like that! Well, not for the entire body, as you can see. I'm still working on it. But for now, it will protect you from human weapons." he agreed brightly. He then switched to a more somber look. "Wear that as part of your clothes when you go to see Remial; it may be the only real protection you have if you don't want to risk your fairy godparent. I don't like the idea of you trying to rescue Chester yourself, so I want you to just act like a distraction. The Others will be making the actual rescue attempt." he told her and grinned, "I'll keep you secret, so they won't know it's you who will be helping them."

"So I'll be like a secret agent?" Trixie asked and he nodded, "Cool!" She clutched the body-suit closer to her, smiling broadly. "I've got the perfect accessories to go with this! Remy won't know what hit him when I get through with him!" Apollo flew out in concern, gripping his wand tightly.

"I don't know about this, Trixie. What if Remy tries to do something to you with a wish? That suit might save you from a bullet or a knife, but it can't help you if you're turned into a mouse or turtle!" he pointed out. The Asian looked up at him confidently.

"Go with me, then! We'll face Remy, wish for wish!" she declared, "Let's do it for Timmy! For the Heart of Dimmsdale!" Apollo blinked down at his godchild in surprise, then broke into a smile and lifted his wand in salute.

"If you're willing to face him on his turf, then I should do the same! I'll face Juandissimo for you and the Heart!" he cheered.

"Sir, how is it that you are an ally to Fairy World? I thought adults aren't supposed to know about fairies." Trixie turned her attention back to the redhead at his desk.

"Simply put, they don't allow adult humans to know about them. I'm not human." Caleb returned, "I'm an android with a soul, beyond that, I'm a magic-user, and beyond that, I'm the Guardian Angel of Heroes." Trixie jumped, startled by a sudden spread of fiery-red wings of light that erupted from the older man's back. "I built these wings of mine, oh, about sixty thousand years ago. I had some friends help me with the installation." he added absently and folded his wings away, light flickering out.

"So you're a robot angel?" the Asian remarked and laughed, "Now I've seen everything! Well, thanks a lot for the body-suit! I'll get changed and distract Remy right away!"

"Call me before you do. I'll need a few minutes to get Timothy and his friends set up to do the rescue before you start to distract him." the angel remarked, scribbling out a number on a notepad and handing it off to her. He pressed a button on his desk and waved her off. "The redirect field is off. You can wish yourself away now." Trixie bowed, paused, then giggled.

"I haven't done that for a while!" she remarked and recomposed herself, "Apollo, I wish I was home!" The two vanished in a burst of red smoke and Caleb sat back in his chair, propping his feet onto the desk with a smug smile.

"If the game wants to change, then I'll just add in another option to the menu." he murmured to himself and closed his eyes, "Martel, thank you for denying me teenage hormones."


	8. Chapter 8

8

Remy turned the detector over in his hands, smiling slightly as he studied it. It was clever, really. It explained what happened to a majority of the anti-magic devices that went missing for no apparent reason. That Timothy kid must have taken them to the Hounder Organization, who then reverse engineered them to create the little device. It blinked with several little markers on the screen, blips of light that signaled the locations and identities of the nullifiers lining the hall where he was keeping the peasant boy. Perhaps he should do the same, use Hounder's technology against him and all. He got up from his plush recliner and headed for one of several units set up on a table nearby. Tapping one into activity, Remy dropped the detector into the fairy trap's butterfly net assembly.

"Take this to Crocker at Master Control." he ordered it and watched as the aerial trap's eye glowed and the sphere flew out the balcony window towards one of the black towers in the city. Juandissimo watched it leave and poofed back to normalcy once it was gone.

"How much longer is this going to go on?" he asked the blonde, "Draining magic from the city... it's not safe for fairies here anymore. There's a city-wide order for evacuation. You're forcing hundreds of fairies to choose between Death and abandoning their godchildren!" Remy flipped a hand at the words and gave a small huff.

"Let them run if they desire. I don't care. None of these peasants deserve to have fairy godparents anyway!" he declared and stood at the balcony, gripping the rail tightly as he glared in the direction of the Dimmsdale Cemetery, "After all I've been through, no one else deserves to have happiness if _I_ can't be happy. And this city... no matter what I do, it won't let go of him. _My_ wishes are the ones that move this town forward each day; it's _my_ power that keeps it running. Why won't it get with the program and declare **me** the new Heart of Dimmsdale?!" The Latino fairy flew out to join him, looking out over the city. Remy sighed harshly and shook his head. "I don't understand it, Juandissimo. Why won't they recognize me?" he muttered resentfully, "I'm the one with money and power and magic. Why do they insist on calling that buck-toothed peasant the Heart of the city?"

"As much as I enjoy your company, my little friend, the boy did have a, how you say, more honest charm to him." the fairy remarked idly and waved his wand around absently, "He could be rather selfish, but in the end, his heart was pure and he performed good deeds with his wishes."

"You sound like you would have preferred to be _his_ fairy godparent." Remy growled, glaring up at him. Juandissimo sniffed haughtily.

"Oh, please! Between you and him, you were far more sexy to be seen with than someone who could open a can of menudo with his two front teeth!" he declared in an insulted tone, "He had his good points, but sex appeal was not one of them. And I, being the most sexy fairy in Fairy World, cannot be brought down by associating with society's doormats." Remy folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the rail, turning his back on the city.

"It doesn't matter anyway. He's dead and gone; the Heart beats no longer. All I have to do is finish the Dark Spires and cover the globe with them." he mused aloud, "I'll drown this world in misery and punish them for ignoring me and putting all their attention on Turner." He lifted his head to look up at the Latino. "Speaking of Turners, how **are** those two lunkheads doing? Have they finally decided to pack up and get out?" the blonde added dryly, "I'm getting tired of those little fundraisers to keep that blasted little flame burning in the town square." Juandissimo waved his wand again flippantly.

"I heard they recently moved into another residence with their little girl. The child is still receiving regular visits from that little out-of-town agent of yours." he replied, "Other than that, they've remained their dull, weepy selves. So very unsexy."

"Filthy rats, the lot of them." Remy grumbled and blinked at the sound of his doorbell ringing. "Oh, who could that be now? I'm waiting for that signal from my ground units...." he muttered irritably as he headed off to personally sic the guard dogs on his unwanted visitor.

He was surprised to see Trixie Tang on his doorstep, dressed in what had to be the most ungodly outfit he'd ever laid eyes on. A black body-suit that clung so tightly to her body he could have sworn it was a second skin, a jacket of expensive black leather of the finest quality, a diamond studded silver belt that slung low across her waist, soft black velvet boots that replaced her usual white suede ones; he caught himself fairly salivating at the sight and covered his mouth with one hand as he tried to recompose himself. Trixie smiled at him, those exotic eyes of her accented by thick lashes and soft makeup that made her seem like a ripe piece of heavenly fruit.

What was he planning to do? He'd forgotten all of a sudden.

"Aren't you going to invite me in? I've had such a horrid day and I could really use a fellow A-List student to _lean_ on." she breathed that word at him, moving closer so he could catch the scent of her perfume.

Oh, sweet fragrance from distant lands!

"T-Trixie! Wh-what a pleasant sur-surprise!" Remy managed to stammer out, feeling unusually warm as he stepped aside, "Um, do please come in! Would you, um, would you like a spot of tea?" She entered the mansion, paused and looked up at him with that delightful smile of hers.

"Why, Remy! How sweet of you! I'd love some tea, thank you." she purred and accepted his proffered arm, linking hers around it, "Lead the way."

They walked together to a study where a fireplace was immediately lit and a butler brought in a tray with tea and crumpets for them. Remy pulled the seat out for her, then settled into his own chair, never moving his gaze from the Asian as she sipped carefully at her cup.

"I'm glad that you're so charming and appreciative of someone like me." she murmured and a delicate blush spread across her cheeks as a pair of candles was lit for them, "It was such a lovely day today. Truly, it was awful that those fake Populars ruined it for me."

"Who?" Remy asked absently, propping his chin on one hand as he continued looking her over. That outfit, really; didn't the poor dear have a clue as to what it was doing to him?

"That S-List group. Rotten bunch." Trixie pouted prettily, "They said the most horrendous things about me that are completely untrue! Can you believe they accused _me_ of being the reason that Turner boy died?" She took another sip of tea and sniffed indignantly. "Honestly, it was his own stupid fault! Wasn't it?" she asked him, fluttering her beautiful eyelashes at him.

"Oh, completely. I assure you, my sweet, that you had absolutely nothing to do with Turner's death." Remy breathed and smiled at her, "Have I told you lately that you look simply ravishing?" Trixie laughed and flipped her hand negligently.

"I know I'm absolutely the most perfect girl this town will ever see." she remarked and leaned across the table to smile slowly mere inches from his face, "But it sounds so _good_ hearing it from you."

Sounded like a cue for wine if Remy ever heard one.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Timmy prowled along the side wall of the mansion, hands flexing anxiously as the Others looked around the mess of shredded white fabric that littered the grounds. Cosmo floated nearby the pacing brunet, clutching the Windcutter Scythe in his hands. His hair shadowed most of his face, but for a few seconds the group wasn't really sure if the fairy was actually smiling at his wild use of the air blades he generated earlier. It was a little creepy, seeing the green-haired fairy's lips pulled back, baring teeth in a somewhat maniacal grin as he held the scythe close to his body. Then Wanda poked him with her wand and his head snapped up, a look of surprise on his face, honest surprise that someone had touched him. He looked back at her, smiled brightly and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

Had that first smile just been something the S-List imagined from the stress of watching Timmy and Tootie hurriedly wish away guards and dogs to different locales before they could alert Remy to their presence?

"Come on, Caleb. How long does it take to let us know we can do the rescue?!" Timmy grumbled and jumped back from the wall, a spiral of flames shooting up to spin around his body, a brilliant display coloring the area in concert with the setting sun.

"Hey! Knock it off! You wanna call the fire department while you're at it, Human Torch?!" A.J. hissed. The fire died down and snuffed itself out as the brunet punched the wall of the mansion.

"I'm sick of waiting!" he growled and blinked as the Fenton Phones came on at last.

_"Okay. That should be long enough for the distraction to get underway. Move fast. It won't last for very long."_ the redhead told the boy. Timmy nodded and waved at his friends from where they hid among the bushes. Tootie hurried forward and looked up at Romi with a smile.

"I wish there was a door here we can use to sneak into Remy's house!" she declared. The previously wished-for entrance had disappeared, probably wished away by Remy and Juandissimo after they discovered it once they learned Apollo had been rescued. Romi pointed her wand at the wall, firing a beam of magic that poofed a door into existence. Timmy pulled it open and looked around inside, scanning the halls for signs of life before waving everyone inside.

"I've been here before, so I know the way to the nullifier hall. Come on! We have to hurry or we'll lose the element of stealth and stuff!" he whispered and ran down the hall, leading his team of friends onwards.

Luckily, things hadn't changed since the last time Timmy broke into Remy's mansion, so the stairs and halls led him right to the nullifier corridor. He halted, grabbing onto Tootie's arm before she could go any further. Cosmo and Wanda hung back with him, frightened expressions on their faces. Romi fluttered about in a panic, then settled for hiding behind her godchild, eyes wide.

"Here it is. That hall up ahead. That's the one." he whispered and winced, "Gah, he's increased the field! I can feel it from here!" A.J., Sanjay and Elmer stepped around the two of them, making their way to the hall themselves to examine the rows of nullifiers. The genius of the group tapped on one black dome and gave a small, unimpressed grunt.

"He doubled the power output, I bet. No worries, leave it to us." he remarked and looked back at them, "You guys better back away some more if it's affecting you at that point. Anything else we should know about?"

"The room might be locked. I lost the first key I used to open it, but he probably changed the locks. Also, there's a fairy trap inside the room, hidden." Timmy told him as he backed away from the hall, pulling Tootie along with him, "It should leave you alone, considering you don't have fairies with you."

"We may be miserable, too, but at least we don't wallow in it. That might be why we didn't get fairy godparents." Elmer remarked thoughtfully, "Instead of trying to find a way to escape life, we put our energies into finding out why Timmy died." The brunet smiled half-heartedly at that.

"It may sound strange, but I'm glad to hear that his death gave you all a reason to be determined, if not awfully persistent." he laughed. The trio grinned and nodded, then headed down the hall.

The door was indeed locked, and A.J. dug though his bag of tools and gadgets to find a way to remedy it. A small pen laser cut around both lock and doorknob, allowing him to push it open. The three boys peered into the room cautiously. It was dimly lit and they could just about make out a prone form lying half-curled on the floor.

"Oh, bad memories!" Sanjay murmured helplessly, raking his fingers through his hair as Elmer hurried forward to check on the blonde.

"He's breathing." the boy reported with relief, "He's just pretty out of it."

"A sedative, maybe? Chloroform would knock a guy out pretty good." A.J. remarked as he moved to lift the blonde's legs, "Sanjay! Stop wailing and help us out, man!" The three of them together lifted the half-stupefied teen and began to carefully maneuver their way out of the nullifier hall. "Geez, Chester, lay off the snacks, why don'tcha? You weigh a ton!" the dark-skinned boy complained.

They joined up with their magic-using friends not far from the entrance to the floor and set Chester down for a rest. Tootie poked at him, fascinated, while Timmy scratched his head in confusion.

"Is he asleep?" he asked the other boys.

"More like dazed. Whatever Remy did to him, it's messed up his senses pretty badly." A.J. remarked.

"He used an underhanded trick to cripple our comrade's ability to fight back and threw him into a room! Remy is such a cheating, little... what is American phrase for male-child-of-she-dog?" Sanjay grumbled, slapping at Chester's face in an attempt to snap him out of his fog.

"Wanda, I wish that whatever did this to Chester was flushed out of his system." the brunet remarked and the pink-haired fairy lifted her wand to grant it. A sparkle of magic winked into existence around the boy's head and Chester blinked into full alertness. He sat up in surprise, looking around at his friends.

"Huh? Hey, guys; what happened?" he asked in confusion, "One minute I'm staring down a bunch of mechanical mutts, the next...." He rubbed his head. "Did I eat bad chips?" he questioned inanely. Timmy pulled him to his feet and shook his head, laughing.

"It's nothing. Let's get out of here before our diversion runs out and we get noticed." he told the blonde and began leading the group out of the halls when the Phones came on again.

_"Okay, this view from across the street is nice and all, but we've got a serious issue with our distraction."_ Caleb began dryly, _"Namely the fact that she got found out. You might wanna pick her up on your way out."_ Timmy halted, baffled by the words.

"Huh? 'Her'? What are you talking about?" he asked as the other teens looked at him in a mix of befuddlement and concern.

_"Oh, I forgot to mention that part, didn't I? Sorry. Trixie was the one diverting Remy's attention from you guys."_ the android remarked innocently, _"Since teenage hormones are so distracting, I figured she'd be the best candidate for using her appearance to keep him occupied."_

"You sent _**Trixie**_ after that maniac as the distraction?!" Timmy exploded into the Fenton Phones, "Are you **insane**?!"

"She's in here with us?!" A.J. exclaimed in shock, "What is she doing?!"

"Dude, Trixie's here?! Man, this is getting wild!" Chester remarked in astonishment.

_"I didn't **send** her, exactly. She actually wanted to come here and do the rescue herself. I merely convinced her to wait until you were in place to make the attempt and she could use her feminine powers to mesmerise Buxaplenty for a few minutes."_

"She wanted to save Chester by herself?" the brunet echoed uncertainly. The blonde blinked and looked to his friends, pointing at himself as if someone could confirm that the Chester being referred to was indeed him.

_"That had been her intent, yes. So why don't you divert your little party to the location of Ms. Tang and help her out of her current situation? I'm guessing bright explosions of purple and red light aren't really good for a teenager's state of health."_ the angel finished and clicked off.

Timmy blinked in shock, staring off into space as the words sank into his mind. Trixie Tang was here, in Remy's mansion, using herself to keep the blonde distracted while he and the Others rescued Chester. And it had been her idea. Was it born from guilt? Did all the accusations the other S-List teens throw at her really hurt her that badly?

"Let her get turned into a rock. Forget her." Tootie grumbled and began to leave, only to have Timmy grab onto her arm. She looked up at his serious expression in surprise.

"You guys are turning into the A-List kids. Remember how they used to treat you? How they said mean stuff to drag you down and beat you into the mud?" he told the group harshly, "Look at yourselves now. You did the same thing to Trixie, and now she's risking herself to help us, to make up for the things you accused her of doing. Does _that_ make you feel good?" A.J., Sanjay, Elmer and even Tootie winced at his words and hunched their shoulders in shame. Romi nodded.

"I agree with Timothy. Tootie, you were very mean to that poor girl. She wanted to be friends with Timothy, too. When we save her, I would like it very much if you would apologize to her." the fairy scolded gently.

"Why are we still standing here?!" Chester demanded with a sudden determination, one hand clenched into a fist, "We have to go and help Trixie! Where is she?!" Timmy thought quickly, trying to figure out how to locate the girl. Caleb said that he saw purple and red smoke, so the two fairy godparents must be having a fight. He lifted his arm and began tapping at the keys. Of course! It worked before, it should work again; entering the name of any fairy in the world would allow him to track their wands using the Adventurer's Map 3000 that was clasped around his right forearm.

In seconds, the map began to build itself up and a crown shone in a room two floors below them.

"There! That's Juandissimo's wand signal! Caleb said he saw fairy magic, so that must be where she is!" he declared and looked up at his fairy godparents, "Cosmo, change into your disguise and don't pop out no matter what!" The green-haired fairy blinked in momentary incomprehension, then a light went off and he nodded seriously. He glanced aside at his wife.

"I love you; don't forget that." he murmured and poofed into the iPod that hung around Timmy's neck. She blinked down at him, puzzled by those words.

"Wanda, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but can you keep Juandissimo distracted so Remy can't use magic?" the brunet asked, "If he still has an obsession with you, we can use it to our advantage. Say what you have to, just keep him from granting wishes!" Wanda flew back, horrified.

"Do you know what you're risking, Sport?! If Remy and Juandissimo see me with you...!" she cried.

"Only **one** of you!" Timmy snapped back, "Tell them Cosmo was imprisoned; tell them he was executed as punishment; tell them you were given to me as a test of your worth; _tell them you murdered Cosmo yourself, just keep Juandissimo out of the battle!_" He threw his hand out to her and she uttered a pained cry before transforming into the watch he often wore on his wrist. "Okay! Let's move!" he ordered the other teens and they raced to find the newest member of the S-List team.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Moments ago~

Trixie used every ounce of willpower to keep her smile up as she sat by Remy on a plush sofa in the study. Apparently, her perfume made him headier than she thought. He was gleefully outlining his plan to blanket the world in anti-magic and misery as he traced lines along her captive arm. She just smiled and nodded, praying that the rescue would be done soon and the signal to escape, her phone going off in her jacket pocket, would alert her to sweet freedom. Remy was just pulling her closer, probably expecting a kiss, when Juandissimo burst into view from his peacock guise, a disapproving scowl on his face.

"Remy, my good friend, must I remind you that this girl has already proven herself to be highly untrustworthy? As much as I applaud your choice in sexy females, now is not the time to be thinking with the _southern_ head!" he berated, "Focus, you horse's ass! What happens every time this girl shows up at your side?" Remy turned a puzzled and slightly drunken expression on him.

"She says lovely things and makes me feel really, _really_ good?" he replied questioningly. The Latino fairy smacked his forehead in exasperation.

"No, _éstupido_!" he yelled, "She starts trying to get you to tell her things!" Remy frowned and looked back at Trixie as she gave him a weak smile, her heart racing frantically. This wasn't looking good. Thank goodness she had Apollo as her pendant.

"That's right. You're always wanting to know things." the blonde slurred accusingly.

"And when she learns things, she goes away, correct?" the Latino prodded, "This girl is not worthy of the love of _mi amigo_ and godchild! She is only using you!" Remy jumped up and scowled.

"Yes, I remember now! You come crawling to me when you want something, then you scurry off and suddenly my plans begin to unravel at the hands of that blasted Neogene!" he declared furiously, "You've been selling me out, haven't you?!" Trixie leaped from the sofa and stood before him, a determined glare aimed at him.

"What you're planning to do is wrong, Remy! You can't force the world into misery just because you didn't get your way when Timmy was around!" she shouted back, "I'm going to avenge Timmy Turner and Timothy Neogene! I'm going to prove to them that I'm not just some stupid Popular who cares about no one else!"

"He's **here**, isn't he?!" Remy spat out in rage, "He learned I had his little friend and he told you and you came here to distract me, didn't you?! You filthy little whore!" Trixie huffed and threw her arm out and aside.

"Call me what you like, you pig! You're **not** taking over as the Heart of Dimmsdale! That title belongs to Timmy Turner alone!" she cried, "Apollo! I wish Remy was a rat!" The flame-colored fairy burst into view and brandished his wand, aiming the star at Remy.

"Juandissimo! I wish she turned into what she _really_ is! A bitch!" the blonde shrieked. Both fairies fired their beams of magic and, in blasts of red and purple smoke, the wishes were granted. Remy shrieked in a fury as he took in his white fur and shrunken suit, pink tail twitching madly. Trixie stood her ground, growling fiercely with sharp teeth bared as the body-suit stretched and distorted to fit her new body.

"I wish I was _normal_!" Remy screeched, racing to escape the black hound that hunted after him. Burst of purple.

"I wish he was a gerbil!" Trixie screamed, scrabbling on all four paws to avoid getting kicked by the normalized teen. Burst of red.

"I wish **she** was a weed!"

"I wish I was normal and **he** was a stuffed bear!"

"I wish I was a **real** bear!"

"I wish he was a turkey!"

_"A tiger!"_

_"Pussycat!"_

The two fairies granted wish after wish, filling the room with explosions of colored smoke and magic until a shrill whistle filled the air.

"That! Is! ENOUGH!" the voice of Timothy Neogene bellowed out and Apollo quickly turned Trixie back into her normal self before poofing into the pendant around her neck. When the smoke cleared and both she and Remy could see what was going on, both teens were amazed to see the entire S-List group standing between them.

"Timothy?" Trixie murmured in surprise.

"Neogene!" Remy snarled, glowering at the black-clad teen standing at the head of the pack, set firmly in a fighting stance, "How _dare_ you trespass on my territory!"

"You mess with anyone under the protection of the Hounder Organization and you get screwed over fast." Timothy growled in barely contained fury, "Be glad I'm the only pain you have to deal with, 'cause if the full power of the Organization was brought into play, there wouldn't be enough left of you to fill a rat's piss pot."

No one caught on. No one knew. So she was still safe; Apollo wouldn't be taken away. That must be why Timothy had whistled. He was warning her that he was arriving with the other teens. Trixie let out a breath of relief. He'd take care of things now. She blinked as the blonde in the S-List, Chester, went to her side with a puzzled but concerned expression on his face.

"You okay?" he asked, "I didn't think you'd actually go through all this just to bail my lame ass out of here." She blinked at him again, then dropped her head, suddenly feeling somewhat awkward.

"Hey, I was just doing it to do it, y'know? For the sake of helping you guys in your mission and all." she stammered in embarrassment. She watched his face fall in disappointment and felt oddly guilty about it. The least she could have done was lie a little. That had always been one of her strong points.

"Oh. Right." the blonde muttered, "Um. Thanks."

"You filthy mongrel! Always getting in my way!" Remy snarled viciously, "You're becoming as big a thorn in my side as that Turner boy had been! The two of you even have that same stupid immunity!" Timothy tilted his head, perplexed. "This stupid town and their stupid rules! _'You can't destroy or damage anything that was put up in honor of Timmy Turner.'_ Bah!" the second blonde in the room growled furiously, "And wishes don't do a damn thing either! Anything associated with that boy, has his name or likeness on it... _none_ of my wishes can touch it! It's bloody infuriating! And **you**! You who refuse to die, you who can't be wished away! _Who the hell are you?!_" Timothy only smiled.

"Someone who gets a kick out of watching you fail." he replied simply. Remy hissed and shot a glare up at the Latino fairy, who had blinked at Timothy curiously before uttering a very unsexy squeak of recognition.

"Juandissimo! I wish everyone here who isn't protected by those stupid rules was turned into a cockroach!" he demanded and the fairy shook his himself out of his stupor to grant it. Timothy only undid his watch, chuckling.

"I figured you might try that. Wanda?" he purred and tossed the pink strap into the air, smiling at the other teen's now bulging eyes as the watch exploded in a burst of pink smoke.

Like a mirage from days long since pronounced lost to memory, Wanda spun into view, dressed in her usual attire of yellow t-shirt, black pants and black shoes. Pink hair curled in the familiar swirls and accented with the tiny yellow earrings that matched her top, she was a reminder of past grudges and bitter feuds. But for Juandissimo, she was a vision of beauty. He was immediately at her side, his godchild's wish forgotten as he grasped her hand in his.

"Wanda! My beauty! My darling! My flower of everlasting sweetness!" he gushed happily, "I thought you had been cast into Fairy World's darkest prison for that tragic day!" The fairy plastered on a smile and shook her head.

"I was, um, granted a pardon for my good service. As long as I do well in my parole time with Neogene, I'll be granted a full pardon after I'm done." she managed to say. Remy pointed a shaking finger at the brunet, babbling almost incoherently.

"Don't read anything into it, Remy." Timothy growled, "Like I said, the rules of life don't apply to me and I have connections to Fairy World you can only dream of attaining. I pulled strings to get access to a fairy that knew this city, all so I could bring you down." Juandissimo busily pressed kisses to the pink-haired fairy's hand, ignoring the blonde below him that now seemed to be frothing at the mouth, wide eyes locked onto Wanda in a mix of disbelief, incomprehension and utter hatred for what was happening.

"Whatever happened to that moron husband of yours? Did he get pardoned too?" the Latino murmured and Wanda forced a giggle.

"Oh, no, no! He was, uh, executed for being a complete idiot!" she replied. Juandissimo sighed in relief.

"The heavens smile upon me this day!" he crooned, "Come away with me, Wanda, my delicious little slice of nirvana! It is our second chance at _romance_!"

"Move out." Timothy ordered the group and watched as the S-List began to make their way out of the study and soon enough the mansion entirely. He maintained his ground, eyes narrowed at the blonde before him who seemed to be on the brink of madness. "We're leaving now. I have what I came here for, and even a little extra." he remarked slowly, "Don't you dare try a stunt like this again. Not with Timmy Turner's friends. Unless, of course, you wish to see Death and ask him personally how your little rival in the pink hat is doing." He looked up at the two fairies. "Wanda, we're done here."

"Thank God." the pink-haired fairy griped and poofed into the watch around the brunet's wrist, escaping a kiss from Juandissimo that would have crossed the line. Timothy glanced at Remy's livid face one last time, then calmly slipped his hands into his pockets and left the room, whistling a strangely upbeat tune.


	9. Chapter 9

9

Caleb insisted on doing a full check of Chester once the group returned to the Ivory Tower during lunch the next day. The blonde kept insisting he was fine even as the android dragged him away for tests. Timmy managed a smile for the sake of the situation, knowing how much the other teens were laughing at the poor boy's plight. He was tired and worried; much of his night had been spent awake, listening to the sounds of various things breaking and shattering in one of the numerous rooms of his new manor. He hated the over-sized house, too many rooms, too many emotionless robotic butlers that the Archives had put together in a mad dash to staff his new home, and too many expensive looking things all over the place that looked as though they were bought simply for the sake of being there. Eye candy.

Well, it was garbage now. In a strange sudden fit, Cosmo had torn through one of the rooms of the house, destroying just about everything he'd laid eyes on for no obvious reason. Wanda had fled to Timmy's room and the two huddled together, blanket wrapped around them both as they listened and waited for the chaos to end. They found the green-haired fairy the next morning, slumped against a shattered table in a deep sleep.

And he kept on sleeping, even now, cradled in the brunet's arms as Timmy watched the remainder of the S-List eat lunch in the meeting room while discussing their plans for the day. A.J. had not been pleased with the loss of the anti-magic device detector.

"How are we supposed to keep track of those things **now**?" he grumbled, sandwich in one hand as he tapped away on his laptop with the other. Across from him was Trixie Tang, who was reluctantly accepted as a member of the S-List by the rest of the group once they apologized for their prior cruelty.

"He's mine!" Tootie had only yelled and promptly threw her arms around Timmy's waist, scowling up at the sixteen-year-old Asian. She sat at the end of the table closest to Timmy, eating a sandwich while Romi happily plucked up steamed rice from a bowl with a pair of chopsticks.

"It wasn't going to do you much good if you had kept it anyway." Trixie replied simply, tapping away at her own laptop as she went through the training sessions one Tucker Foley of Amity Park designed for her. "Remy babbled something about Mr. Crocker taking all the traps that survived the destruction of the second Spire and putting them to a new use somewhere else. For all you know, he's probably evacuating the Spire you're targeting now. Huh? Hey! I had that simulated server hacked and you damn well know it, Mr. Foley!" she snapped the last part to her instructor.

_"That's Fryer Tuck to you, and you should be paying attention. Never know when a security program's gonna come along and boot you out."_ the young man on the other end of the chat relay remarked cheerfully.

"You're making this harder than it should be! It's not fair!" Trixie growled at the older African-American.

"Speaking of Mr. Crocker, I'd like to know where he is so I can tell him face to face that I'm tearing down every last one of those stupid towers of his!" Timmy griped, "I'm sick of seeing him upgrade anti-magic traps and all we can do is just sit around and wait to see what hits us before we can make a move to strike back!" Elmer and Sanjay looked at each other and gave him puzzled looks as Tootie paused in the middle of eating her pudding, both Trixie and A.J. lifted their heads from their computers, staring at him. Romi looked around in confusion, the chopsticks still stuck in her mouth. Timmy blinked back at the group, puzzled. "What?"

"Oh, that's right. You weren't here during Timmy's funeral." A.J. remarked in understanding, "You've been told before that the whole town attended the burial of Timmy Turner, right?" The brunet nodded and A.J. continued. "Well, while a lot of people mourned and said good things about him as the casket went down, some of us who were closer to Timmy noticed some strange things going on with a few of his, um, enemies, I guess we could say."

"Remy was a jerk! He laughed and giggled like some maniac joker through the whole thing!" Tootie spat out in distaste, "He hid it by pretending he was crying, but I know the difference between crying and laughing, and that snob was making like he was watching _Last Comic Standing_!"

"Dr. Bender and his son, Wendell, just stood there with grins on. Wendell had a copy of Chip Skylark's CD, the single release of _My Shiny Teeth and Me_, and looked as if Christmas had hit the town." Elmer added and looked worried, "Shortly after that, Chip Skylark disappeared from Dimmsdale. No one's seen or heard from him since then. The police have done searches of all the usual places he hung out at, Totally Teeth television studio, the mall, five-star hotels and restaurants, the dental aisle of the Wall-to-Wall Mart.... Nothing." He shook his head slowly, the somber expression on his face unchanged.

"There was an urban myth that went around for a few months that Chip had been haunted by Timmy's ghost, 'cause he and Timmy were known to be really good friends." he went on and adjusted his glasses, "According to the legend, he was so overcome with the grief of seeing Timmy's restless soul, that he completely trashed his own hotel room, then threw himself into the Dimmsdale sewer system to drown. On some nights, if you walk by certain drainage holes, you can still hear Chip Skylark singing a song he once said he made up just for Timmy during a school play." Elmer shrugged once the story was done, "But like I said, it was just an urban legend and the guy who came up with it was run out of town for hinting that Timmy wasn't at peace."

"It is still true, however, that Chip Skylark vanished only a few weeks after Timmy died. And though his hotel suite was demolished in such a manner as to suggest very large and very strong persons were to blame, there was no evidence to say that he was either kidnapped or killed. Just a lot of toothpaste spread everywhere." Sanjay agreed and sighed forlornly, "First, Dimmsdale lost its Heart, then it lost its most beautiful Voice. Tragic, tragic!"

"Chip...." Timmy murmured, a surge of worry rising in him. How could he have forgotten his other friends?! Chip was missing; he'd have to start a search for him as soon as the Spires were destroyed. And Mark Chang! He had to have been in agony for four years, hiding in the junkyard from the rest of the universe and spending his days pretending to be a human kid without Timmy to keep him in check. Or had he given up on that life and gone back to Yugopotamia to face his fate in marriage? The Dimmadump was in a sector of the city under the nullification field. Timmy had no hope of going in there safely just yet; the city-wide field didn't affect him as badly as he thought it would, it was close proximity to an active device that completely screwed him over, and the chances of running into _those_ over there was far greater. He would have to wait until the field was brought down further and more traps were cleared out.

"And Mr. Crocker...." Trixie finally remarked in faint confusion, "Mr. Crocker got very strange. He seemed okay at first, just really quiet and... well, kind of run down. He didn't bother any kids at all since Timmy's funeral, and he didn't talk much." She traced out a design on the table top, looking saddened. "My dad said his spirit had broken, and a black cloud hung over him." She looked up at Timothy, eyebrows furrowed together delicately as she took on a puzzled expression, "But he changed if you mentioned Timmy Turner to him in any way. He'd start to giggle and say something about fairies, then he'd keep giggling. He would just stand there and giggle on and on and then he'd do this." Trixie flicked her finger upward in demonstration. "Then he'd start to cry. It was really sad and kind of creepy. The worst part was this one day in class; someone made some comment about Timmy and he did his whole giggle-cry bit, but then he yelled, 'They should have been there! I didn't mean it! I wanted them to show but they didn't show! They should have been there!'"

"He retired from teaching the very next day. We don't know where he is now, but he doesn't live with his mother anymore." A.J. finished with a sigh, "But apparently he's still obsessed with finding fairy godparents." Timmy sat back in thought, the sleeping fairy still held close to him as Wanda picked at her small serving of lunch listlessly.

He'd had another chill run down him. That didn't happen often, but each time it did he always wound up wondering about things he usually wouldn't think twice about. Remy had been laughing at his funeral, that was no surprise. The rich boy had little love for him when he was alive, always scheming to separate him from Cosmo and Wanda. Dr. Bender and Wendell looking as if they hit jackpot, then Chip Skylark disappearing soon after, his personal suite destroyed; that didn't sound good. That in itself reeked of attempted tooth-burglary, and either it went horribly well and Chip was showing off his voice for a higher choir, or something went terribly wrong and the teen singer had to make himself so scarce, he inadvertently faked death to avoid being found.

And the matter of Crocker... that was an eye-opener. But it threw some confusing new factors into the mix. If Crocker was really as broken as Trixie said he'd been, then why was he still so doggedly pursuing the development of anti-magic technology and fairy-hunting equipment? Why would he giggle, then cry over the mention of his name, and what the heck was up with that finger flick thing? 'They should have been there'? Had Crocker been expecting Cosmo and Wanda to appear somewhere and the fact that they didn't threw him for a loop? That kind of thing always happened when it came to foiling his plans at capturing his fairy godparents and it hadn't stopped him before. Why would it suddenly be enough to make him retire from teaching? His whole reason for being an elementary school teacher was to get close to young kids who had the best possibilities of having fairy godparents! Why would he throw that away in favor of these huge, dangerous, and ungodly expensive Dark Spires?

"Ugh...." Cosmo groaned and the brunet looked down in surprise, "I think I ate too much candy again...." The fairy lifted a hand, pressed it to his forehead and cracked open one eye. "Wanda, my head hurts. Can I have ice cream?" he whimpered. She gave a smile of relief and held up her wand, poofing a bowl of the creamy dessert into the air. Cosmo immediately sat up with a cheer that quickly turned into a cringe as he put both hands to the sides of his head.

"Hey, Cosmo, are you okay?" Timmy asked worriedly, setting the fairy down beside him. He held a hand over his godparent's head. "You want me to use _First Aid_?" he went on.

"Don't mix magic. It's not healthy." Wanda admonished him and took down the bowl of ice cream, holding a spoonful out to her husband, "Come on, puddin'! Open wide for the choo-choo!"

"Ow. Headache." the fairy growled, "Stop babying me." He pulled his hands away, blinked up at Wanda, then smiled and clapped his hands together. "Yay! Ice cream choo-choo!" Cosmo exclaimed and opened his mouth, waiting happily for the treat.

"Your fairies are the _strangest_ I have ever seen." A.J. remarked dryly and Timmy stood to face him, arms akimbo and a playfully exasperated look on his face.

"Hey, up until a couple of weeks ago, they were the _only_ fairies you ever saw! Trust me, there's way weirder ones out there in the world!" he pointed out and blinked as Caleb returned with the blonde.

"He checked out in good health, just a bruise where he must have gotten hit by something. It's healed now so there shouldn't be any worries." the redhead remarked as Chester eagerly joined the group for lunch. "Any thoughts on what we should do now, Timothy?" he turned the question on the brunet, "We've lost the detector, but I can always make another. It's made with magitechnology so I'm not too worried about someone poking around with it." Timmy looked up at him in surprise, then nodded seriously and turned back to the group.

"Okay, we've been in training and recovery long enough. We know that Crocker really means business, even if he is kind of 'broken'. He and Remy tried to take out Chester, so that means we definitely need to protect you all from attacks." he declared and pointed at the map on a wall monitor, glad for the fact that so many of them were installed throughout the Ivory Tower. "There are six Dark Spires left in Dimmsdale, and we know that the last good count of the target Spire was two to three to two. I say, tonight, we go with those numbers and take out that tower with another stealth attack!" Trixie looked doubtful even as the other teens cheered and pumped fists into the air.

"Yeah! We've wizened up to Crocker's tricks!" Chester exclaimed, "All you have to do is make sure you don't carry stray hairs from Cosmo on you and stay invisible with Danny Phantom! If no one uses magic of any kind, it'll be a snap to knock over the third Spire!"

"Right!" Timmy agreed and Tootie jumped up, holding her sheathed dagger out to him.

"Let me join you this time! I want to prove that I can help you in the field!" she cried, "You promised to grant my favor and let me fight beside you, but I haven't even had that chance! Now I have magic and Vicky taught me how to use her daggers! Let me fight!" The group looked at her in astonishment. A twelve-year-old entering that tower with an angel, a ghost and an immortal with no guaranteed protection of her own?! If anything went wrong, she'd be killed for sure!

"Toots! That's insanity!" Chester shrieked in near-hysteria, hands flying up to his hair as his eyes went wide, "That's a hero's job! Girls can't fight!"

"Wonder Woman." Tootie shot back calmly and the blonde settled almost instantly.

"Okay, so maybe **one** girl can." he grumbled. Timmy shook himself out of his daze and folded his arms over his chest.

"No way! Tootie, it's going to be a dangerous mission. They always are! You saw what happened during the first two Spire attacks!" he told her sternly, "You're not coming!" Caleb tapped him on the shoulder and he looked up at the angel in confusion.

"Actually, I like the idea of her coming along." the android remarked cheerfully, "You know _Revive_ and that will protect her from any fatal injuries, plus she has her own set of healing and holy spells. Even better, she has non-magical weapons and the skills to use them. The two of you together should be able to place the bombs much faster than just you alone."

"You just want to make me suffer for you getting bent out of shape in the last attack." Timmy growled irritably and turned his back on the angel in a huff, "Fine. Tootie, you'll be paired with me in the attack. Just do what I say and we'll be fine." Tootie cheered as her fairy clapped her hands in support.

"Yay! My first mission!" the young Goth whooped. A.J. shook his head slowly.

"I don't know about this. Aren't you worried that security might have been amped up because they caught Chester checking the place out for us?" he pointed out worriedly. Timmy waved it off confidently.

"Relax! We have the elements of stealth and surprise on our side!" he remarked, "They won't expect an attack so soon after we rescued Chester, so they won't see us coming even if we mailed them an invite!" He laughed. "What could _possibly_ go wrong?" The S-List stared up at him, then looked at each other.

"That sounded... painfully familiar." Sanjay whimpered, "And painfully ominous, too!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Resuming classes after breaking Chester free from Remy's mansion was unsettling. Timmy shared only one class with the rich boy and he kept his head down, putting up the front of studying geography while watching his rival from across the room. Remy looked dazed, as if he had been given some world-shattering news and still hadn't returned to reality to face the consequences of it all. He'd snap out of it now and then, mostly to assert his authority over the other Populars, but then he'd sink back into sullen silence. It was almost pathetic.

"I kinda feel bad now." Timmy muttered to the pink and green books in his arms as he walked down the halls to his next class, "He looks so out of it; he's practically harmless now!" He brushed aside a few stray hair strands and stopped at his locker for a change of textbooks. Gloves made it a little more difficult to turn the dials, but for the sake of leaving no fingerprints he'd have to live with it. Danny had drilled him on the concept of covering his hands to prevent any kind of identifying marks from being left anywhere. The gloves were a gift from Sam. Timmy pulled free his next book and looked down at its cover, not really seeing the book itself but the memory of Remy's breakdown in the study. "Should I try to help him get some kind of counseling or something? I don't think it's normal for a kid to do all that... _drooling_...."

"That's sweet of you to say, Timmy, but maybe you should wait until after the Spires are destroyed." Wanda whispered back, "It just won't do to wish for him to get help and watch the magic get cancelled because he's surrounded by the nullification field." The brunet sighed and closed his locker.

"Yeah, I know but...." he began to murmur, then froze, staring at a letter that was suddenly affixed to the metal door by a black star-shaped magnet. Where had **that** come from?! He looked around, then plucked it free and studied the paper. The words were scrawled on, as though written by a very young child who hadn't mastered the art of holding a pencil steady.

"What is it?" Cosmo asked in confusion, "Can I see?"

"_'Everything revolves around that tragic day. Every magical creature in existence is watching you, but only a precious few know the truth. Is this the path you really want? Destroy the towers that block magic and be the hero. Just know that you sacrifice part of who you once were with every one that falls. In the end, will you know who you are?'_" Timmy read aloud and turned the paper over quizzically, "There's no signature. What a weird message; what does it mean?" He looked down at the pink book, but Wanda had as equally baffled an expression as Cosmo usually did. "Should I give this to Caleb? He's good at figuring out weird writings and stuff."

"True, but it takes him a century or two to get all the details out and that's if he's not being distracted by a new ruin every decade or so." Wanda griped, "He may be far older than me and Cosmo combined, but he can be such a **baby** when it comes to sniffing around historical sites!" Timmy shrugged and stuffed the letter into his pocket. Let the redhead handle it; he had other things to worry about.

Like the biology test! He raced for his class, hoping to beat the bell and finish the school day in one piece. He still had a Spire to destroy and no way was he going to let detention throw off the whole schedule!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A fully repaired Genis Sage headed down the hall of the Archives of the Twin Blades in New York City, carrying a clipboard holding the latest reports on the status of Dimmsdale. Entering the armory, he made his way up to the red-haired android as he studied a rack filled with assorted daggers and swords.

"Genis, what do you think? The Toy Dagger or the Laser Blade, which would work best for Tootie?" Caleb asked indecisively, not bothering to look at the smaller android.

"The Toy Dagger has a higher attack power while the Laser Blade provides longer reach. Both are easily carried and hidden." Genis replied and the angel finally looked at him with a slight scowl.

"You don't make things any easier with that attitude." he griped and the half-elf held out the clipboard, "What's this?"

"Status reports. With two of the Dark Spires down, Fairy World is once again debating the renewal of the bridge contact point in Dimmsdale, provided they can find a way to confine it to the particular regions of the city that are deemed habitable for fairies. They are also renewing the debate on whether you and Danny Phantom are still to be considered allies to them." he began as Caleb flipped through the papers indifferently.

"I don't really care what they think of me. As long as their petty little jabbering doesn't interfere with my personal mission, they can label me an outlaw if they want. Once I've gained the data and schematics of Crocker's technology, I'll simply integrate it into the security system protecting the original Archives on Derris-Kharlan." the redhead remarked and lifted an eyebrow at one page, "A request for repairs in the Neogene Manor? What for? What happened there?"

"We suspect Cosmo destroyed one of the lounge rooms. Markings similar to the air blades generated by the Windcutter were left all over the walls and furniture. Calculating all the damages, we're looking at 2.3 million dollars worth of needed repairs and replacement." Genis reported and took on an irked expression, "This is the second time in Hounder Records that Cosmo's violent little tantrums have cost us large sums of capital. If this continues, he may end up draining our accounts dry."

"I can only wish." Caleb muttered under his breath, reading through the list of destroyed objects, "He actually punched through the poly-carbonate shield hidden in the insulation?" He whistled. "It takes quite a bit of power to destroy that." Once finished with his perusal, Caleb shrugged, signed the document and handed back the clipboard. "Request granted. Fix the room, repair the shield and contact Danny Phantom for Timmy. He wants his older cousin to bring in as much ghostly power as possible, considering Tootie will be going along with him."

"The game?" Genis inquired and Caleb sighed in exasperation.

"I've only had to deal with a scenario similar to this once before, and I got off easy by confining the two key pieces during the actual Hero's Quest." he grumbled, "This scenario is an absolute _bitch_. One key piece, two possible additional pieces, and I threw in a new option that doesn't seem to be taking. If I can't get them all to make the moves I need them to, I might have to force it and I **hate** that!" He grabbed the Laser Blade and flicked it on, watching the sword of light flare up and form the fully operational weapon. "Forcing another player's hand is a gamble with incredibly high risks, and often the results don't appear to be worth it. It is only after the game has ended and the final score returns to me some ten or twenty years later that I know whether I made the proper manipulations or not. By then, I can't do anything about it. _Alea jacta est._"

"And concerning Cosmo's destructive tendencies?"

"It's probably nothing. He's an idiot, all three of them admit it as fact. Whatever it is that's causing this is probably so trivial, he'll forget about it with another nickel. Just hand him off a five-cent piece and an omelet; Timmy says he loves those." Caleb flicked off the blade and stuffed it into his travel bag. "Return to Dimmsdale. We have more important matters ahead of us." he ordered and put a hand over his 'heart' with a relieved sigh, "Once I've pushed Timmy to his maximum potential in mana manipulation, I'll have a source of mana crystals once again. I just have to find a way to get him to work against that silly promise to his fairy. After all," he added with a smile, "the more adept he becomes at his skills with mana, the less dependant he'll be on the two of them. Eventually, Wanda and Cosmo will be obsolete and unnecessary. We'll petition Fairy World for their removal as soon as that realization sinks into the boy's head." Genis nodded and headed off, making note of the orders for future execution.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

School was done, the team was gathered at the Ivory Tower and final preparations were being made. Trixie had been just as startled by the appearance of the ghost boy known as Danny Phantom as she had been by the revealing of Caleb to be an angelic android. She ran to find a shield for herself, found Tootie standing protectively by Timmy and incited a girls-only feud that was largely ignored.

"Caleb, you've got the invisibility generator from Phantom, so that should cover you stealth-wise." Timmy remarked and shot his cousin a glare, "Okay, Danny, why did you bring **her**?" He pointed at an older girl who stood beside him, decked in full Goth apparel with black tank top, bright green-checkered black skirt and purple stockings, black combat boots and black bracelets, a violet watch on one arm that was decorated with little bats and spiders. She wore a black collar around her neck from which hung a strange blue-black stone shaped like a heart. She once said it was called the Stygian Seal, but never actually explained why it was called that.

"Because if I didn't...." Danny began in irritation and grumbled the rest of his sentence so low it bordered unintelligible, a red flush coming over his face. Timmy tapped his foot impatiently and the halfa stamped his in return. "Hey! I don't have to explain everything to you! She's here to act as my backup, okay?! That's all you're getting from me!"

"Sam!" Tootie cheered and ran up to hug the older girl, "It's great to see you!" They looked almost like sisters, with Sam Manson's black hair cut in a bob and a short ponytail tied in such a fashion, the end curled forward over her head, and Tootie's pigtails passing over her shoulders like curved blades. Both had similar eyes, though Sam's violet color evoked an air of exotic mystery and Tootie's pale lavender just made one wonder if there _wasn't_ something strange and wrong about her.

"Well, long as that's **all** she's here for." Timmy grumbled, "I guess it's okay." He pointed back at the map. "Okay, that's our target, everyone. The Spire Chester had been scoping out when he was captured. That thing now has another reason to be taken out; it made a personal attack on the friends of Timmy Turner!" he declared and motioned to two of the S-List teens. "Chester, Trixie, you two know the most about what's going on with that Spire. Give us the head's-up so Danny can be up to speed." Both teens looked at each other awkwardly, shrugged and stood up.

"I passed by it with the detector every day for about two or three days and each time I counted the anti-magic units, the numbers were different." Chester began and rubbed his head, "It was really weird. First, there were a lot more nullifiers than destroyers and traps, then it was more destroyers than nullifiers and traps, then about the same number of traps and nullifiers while there was a high number of destroyers." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the map. "The last time I went by, the ratio was two to three to two, two nullifiers for every three traps and two destroyers, so it's a little less harsh than the rest of the numbers. Then, for no reason, all the units began to disappear and only the destroyers got called out. They were the ones that took me out." He sighed and looked apologetic. "I lost my phone and the anti-magic device detector in that. Sorry." Caleb tossed a small device his way and Trixie caught it, seeing it juggle about in the air as the blonde tried helplessly to get it into his hands.

"New phone. Free of charge." the android remarked shortly.

"Let's see. From what I could get out of Remy's drunken babbling, the loss of the detector isn't that big a deal." Trixie remarked, flipping her long hair back as she handed the phone to Chester with a grin. She turned the smile back on Timmy, then resumed her report. "He said that Mr. Crocker had been offloading the traps and stuff from the second Spire and taking them somewhere else when it was destroyed. He might have been shuffling them around the other Spires and that might be what was causing the wonky numbers at this Spire." She frowned slightly. "That thing about the units disappearing... maybe he's getting them ready to get out of the third Spire, too. And I think Remy mentioned something about air-mailing a special present to Mr. Crocker."

"Special present?" Timmy echoed and cried out in shocked realization, "The detector! Remy must have sent the detector to Crocker!"

"I'm not worried." Caleb repeated firmly, "It's magitechnology that comprises the bulk of that device. No human alive can make heads or tails of it without my supervision!" He took something else from his bag and held it out, a second device with a much larger screen. "Besides, I told you I'd get another one made to replace it. I expanded the search parameters for longer distances so no one will have to get too close to a Spire to do the counts."

"But still...." Timmy murmured hesitantly and sighed, "All right. The first detector's a loss. What else, Trixie?" The raven-haired girl shook her head.

"Not much, sorry. Between his burbling about how pretty I looked and griping about how the city won't call him the new Heart of Dimmsdale, there wasn't much I could get about what goes on with the Spires or Mr. Crocker." she finished. Sanjay jumped up with the Others in anger.

"No way! Remy will **not** take that title from Timmy! He's already tried to take everything else from him! It was Timmy who made this city so much fun for its people!" the Hindu snapped.

"That's what I told him, and then he turned me into a dog." Trixie grumbled, flipping her hair back again.

"You don't have to take that kind of attitude from some snot-faced rich kid!" Sam declared in outrage, "You've got boots; use them! Kick him till he sounds like a ten-year-old again!" Timmy stepped forward to take the floor once again, holding up his hands for quiet and blinking in amazement as the other teenagers actually hushed and sat back down, watching him.

"This is going to take some getting used to." he murmured to Wanda as the fairies fluttered by him. She smiled and gave him a thumb's-up.

"You're the team leader, Sport! Lead the way!" she laughed, "We'll follow you to the end and back!"

"Lead us to an ice cream parlor! I'll definitely follow you there!" Cosmo added cheerfully, clapping his hands excitedly.

"Right, so here's the plan of attack. We've had to make some changes based on the new information we've gotten and from what we learned in the last two attacks." Timmy began to announce, "Danny, Caleb, Tootie and I will fly into the Spire from the loading dock. It's the only part of the whole tower that Danny's powers will work on. Once inside, we'll split up into three teams again with a set of bombs to plant. It only takes six bombs to destroy the Spire's supports, so each team will get two bombs. Tootie, you'll be with me. Caleb isn't used to having someone tagging along with him and Danny can't do some things if there's another person around, especially if he doesn't know them that well.

"Once we've planted the bombs, we'll make our way out of the tower and wait for the detonation. They're all programmed to go off after five minutes. This will help us avoid the disaster at the first Spire."

"From what I've been told about the second Spire, it appears as though we can use magic just fine inside the Dark Spires, provided there are no nullifier units in activation." Caleb added in, digging into his bag to pull out a dull metal rod. He handed it to Tootie. "Timothy, Tootie and I will have free reign to cause additional damage to the interior systems with our magic. Okay, push this switch here to activate this. It's a weapon from an ancient civilization that I've kept for sentimental reasons. You can borrow it for a while." he remarked and jumped back as Tootie flicked the switch with her thumb and the blade of light burst forth.

"Cool! _Star Wars_!" she laughed and Timmy pointed at her in shock.

"That's it! The flick!" he cried, "Tootie! Do it again, but hold up the sword so that the switch is like on a wall or something!" The young Goth blinked at him, but held the sword vertically and flicked the switch to shut it off. Trixie yelped as well, seeing the motion herself.

"It's just like what Mr. Crocker does when people talk about Timmy!" she exclaimed and A.J. dug out his laptop, bringing up a program and typing in new information.

"The burned-out switch belonged to Crocker at one point and was locked into an 'off' position, though we know from the fingerprint layout that it had been set to 'on' at one point." he remarked and frowned, "If he was referring to this switch when he does that flipping motion each time Timmy's name is mentioned, then why is it that Remy had it and doesn't do the same? And what is the connection between this switch and Timmy that sets off Crocker's little fit?" He looked up at the group. "You guys go ahead with the mission. I'm going to stay here and analyze this new data. Maybe it will lead to a breakthrough in my simulation program." he added.

"All right, but who's going to be our point guy while we're in the Spire?" Timmy asked, puzzled by the dark-skinned boy's leaps of logic. Well, he said to leave it to him and A.J. was better suited for all the technical mumbo-jumbo.

"Leave it to me!" Chester declared with a grin, "Before you joined us, I had to step in as the lead guy for the Others when Timmy died. I wanna show the little guy upstairs that I can do more than just look out for A.J., Sanjay, Elmer and Tootie. And I wanna make up for losing the detector, too. It's my fault I got myself kidnapped, so gimme another chance to help out!"

"Sounds good to me. A.J., hand him the Fenton Phones." the brunet replied and A.J. held them out, eyes still on his laptop. Chester collected the green devices and clipped them to his ears. "Okay, we've got about an hour or so before the sun sets. We need to stake out a place that's got a good view of the Spire and get into position for the attack." he added and looked over at his fairies, "Guys, I want you to keep an eye out for me on the field. If it looks like the anti-magic units are going to try to chase after the S-List and Sam, then I wish in advance for you to take them all back here to the Ivory Tower."

"You got it!" Wanda declared while Cosmo only huffed indignantly.

"I never get to have any fun!" he complained and cheered up as Timmy held out a cookie, "Yay! And now I do!" He grabbed it and began munching away as the pink-haired fairy shot her godchild an angry look.

"They're prepackaged! Look!" Timmy exclaimed, holding out a bag of cookies to her, "I didn't conjure it! Honest!"

"We'd better get moving. Time's running." Caleb remarked and headed for the door, "There's a truck outside waiting for us, arranged by the Hounder Organization for this mission. We can use that to get to the third Spire's domain." The group followed him out, leaving A.J. to continue working on the laptop, putting information together to solve a vague mystery.


	10. Chapter 10

10

Sunset brought forth shades of red and gold over the city of Dimmsdale. It should have been a beautiful sight, and it would have been if not for the collection of Dark Spires marring the skyline. The S-List teens all gathered on a rooftop a block from the Spire, looking down at the empty lots with binoculars and telescopes, watching trucks pick up cartons and leave in their ant-like train of unmarked vehicles. Sam gave some last minute advice to her young pupil, then took her place by the other kids to watch over them. Cosmo and Wanda had to restrain the urge to hug their godchild, accepting simple head rubs as their parting gesture. They flew back to hover over the collection of teens, wands at the ready. Romi couldn't stop crying as she hugged her godchild tightly.

"Be careful, be careful, please, please!" she wailed, "I don't want you to get hurt! Use your healing magic as soon as you can if anything goes wrong and remember you can yell a wish and I'll still grant it!" When Tootie finally pulled her away, the fairy rubbed at her eyes, then bowed and flew off to join the older fairy couple in their watch. Trixie sat by Chester, the worried expression still on her face.

"There was something else, I think. I know there was." she murmured softly as she tapped at her laptop, one of many things she had wished for over the years and dug out of storage for use in helping the S-List. She clicked through a copy of the data disc she had given to Timmy long ago. "Something."

Timmy motioned to the halfa hovering by the roof and walked to the opposite side of the building. Danny flew over and gave him a puzzled look, silently questioning why he was called away.

"I've got another problem. Well, two." Timmy sighed, "Remember how I said both Tootie and Trixie liked me, the different sides of me?"

"The 'Sam-Paulina-Danny' syndrome. Yeah, what about it?" Danny replied.

"There was another girl who liked me, and she found out I was still alive." the brunet mumbled, "But she's crazy, like, mentally unstable crazy. Her name's Veronica, she's been Trixie's best friend since elementary school and she's got this weird manic obsession with becoming Trixie." He gave his cousin a guilty look. "I went to the cemetery to visit my own grave, dressed in my normal clothes, and she saw me. Pinned me down with some crazy flying cheerleader moves or something and started babbling on about always knowing I was never dead and junk."

"Oh, wonderful. There's a 'Valerie' in the mess now." Danny sighed harshly, "What the hell is **wrong** with you? Didn't I teach you to always watch yourself? What if she blabs to the world about your return?"

"That's the thing. She already did but she's been pronounced a nut by the city so they don't believe a word she says." Timmy explained in a hurt tone, "And it wasn't **all** my fault! I just wanted to be me again, for a little while. You can understand that, right?"

"The me I can become is still alive in the eyes of humanity." Danny returned softly, "Timmy, you can't hang on to that identity anymore. It's gone and the world has the proof of it. You can't take it back and say 'Never mind. I'm still alive, see?' Life doesn't work that way."

"I'm exempt from the rules of life!" Timmy spat back, bristling furiously.

"Which is why you can't rejoin it!" the halfa shot back, "And if you're just gonna yell at me, then I'm not gonna help you cope with your girl problems!"

"Gah, you're both against me, you and Caleb! Neither of you are much help dealing with Tootie and Trixie." Timmy grumbled and his cousin blinked at him.

"Wait, you got Caleb in on this whole girl-triangle thing? When?" he asked in a strange tone. The brunet shrugged.

"When Tootie first wanted to help me out, Caleb gave me this super-annoying argument about why I wanted her with me. Then he got ticked off at me when I said I wanted Trixie to join. That's why I haven't bothered to tell him about Veronica; he's gonna chew me out like it's my fault I've got girls chasing after me." he muttered, "Man, why didn't I have _this_ problem when I was ten?! I would have loved having my biggest crush have a crush on me too!" Danny only groaned loudly and he looked up at his cousin in concern. "You okay?"

"Oh, man, Tim-Tim, you just dug your own grave and buried yourself in it...." the halfa moaned, "Never, _ever_ give Caleb the idea that you've got a girl in your sights! He'll give you hell for as long as it takes until you pick her up! **That's** why he's been so gripey; you've got three girls and absolutely no clue as to what to do!" The brunet stared at him, lost, and Danny sighed, shaking his head. "Remember I said I picked Sam and mentioned that Caleb told me she was my true strength?" he asked and Timmy nodded slowly, "You have no idea how much he was on me with hints and nudges and proddings to think of Sam as more than just a friend."

"He tried to hook you up with Sam?" the brunet asked incredulously. Danny nodded fervently.

"Not just tried, he practically threw me at her!" he whispered fiercely, "He calls himself the Guardian Angel of Heroes and says he protects and watches over their family lines. How do you think he does it?!"

"The Internet?" Timmy questioned and earned a smack to the head, "Ow!"

_"Caleb's the world's oldest matchmaker!"_ the phantom hissed in irritation, "He watches the Hero and waits to see if something about them changes when there's a girl involved. If he sees a change he wants to make permanent, he'll rip through your whole life to be sure you end up with that girl! Why do you think he dogs on me about that proposal idea for Sam?! That **wasn't** a joke! He really wants me married off with kids!"

"You're kidding!" Timmy cried fearfully, "That's what he's doing to **me**?! That's why he's been so ticked off about me bringing in Tootie and Trixie?!"

"He must have picked up different changes in you when either one of them is close to you. Caleb hates it when things mess up his plans and if he had a plan to put you to one girl and you suddenly bring in another girl that could possibly be better, he's going to get pissed as hell." the halfa revealed, "Choices, choices, he freaking hates multiple choices because he doesn't have the ability to see the end results of both at the same time."

"He can't try to throw me at _Tootie_; she's only twelve!" the young immortal nearly shrieked and Danny threw an ectoplasmic barrier over his mouth.

"That doesn't matter to him! He's from a much older time than any of us know about, following rules for life that are way different from modern ones! He doesn't care about age differences; if the pairing gets the results he wants, he's going to force it to happen whether you like it or not. It's just easier for him if you really do want it and you don't catch on to what he's doing!" he warned and pulled the barrier away with a sigh, "So my suggestion to you is pick who you want to be with now and make damn sure you show off a ton of power when she's with you. It's the only way I can think of to trick Caleb into throwing down his cards and make the moves you want him to make for you." He watched the brunet groan in despair and tilted his head. "Now, what was the other problem? We have to finish this conversation fast, before that nosy angel catches on."

Timmy hung his head as he pulled the note from his pocket and held it out for his cousin to read. This was not good. He'd always assumed that Caleb was generally laid back and kind of nice, if a little confusing with how he talked and the things he talked about. This was putting him in a more creepy light. A matchmaker? Who did this guy think he was, a walking copy of _Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus_?! And apparently there was no stopping him once he started making his moves on a Hero and the intended girlfriend slash future wife slash future mother of the standard 2.5 kids as dictated by American surveys. Why couldn't he have just **stayed** dead?

"Sounds like something I wish I could have had." Danny muttered after he finished looking over the crumpled letter. Timmy looked up at him, puzzled. "It's part of that whole Hero thing. About how once you make a choice with what you plan to do with yourself when your life changes forever, you can never go back to the way things were." the halfa explained, "When I became this way, half-human, half-ghost, I wanted nothing more than to be changed back to normal. To get rid of my ghost powers and just be plain old Danny Fenton again." He made a helpless gesture with one hand. "And then a ghost attacked the school and I learned that I could fight back using the same powers I wanted to make go away. I chose to become a Hero, and the more I took on the role to protect Amity Park, the more of my old self began to die away. I became more than Danny Fenton alone could ever be; I became Danny Phantom, as well as a new form of Danny Fenton. The two are joined together forever, I can't change that. I wouldn't want to, not after all I've learned about myself and the path I chose."

Timmy watched as his cousin touched down and leaned against the cooling unit of the building, a melancholy air surrounding him.

"If I had something like this letter come to me in the early days, I might have given in to the temptation and asked my parents to make me normal again. To never face the choice to become a Hero and just be myself again. But what would that have meant for everyone I loved and cared about?" Danny asked softly, "If I chose to be a coward and turn my back on the life of a Hero, then someone I could have stopped would have free reign to do as they wanted, and everything I knew would be utterly destroyed. This letter... it's asking you that question, it's giving you that temptation." He matched gazes with the brunet, a sad, tired look on his face.

"If you keep choosing to be a Hero by tearing down the Spires, eventually you will become it, and any hopes of remaining as regular old Timmy Turner or Timothy Neogene will be gone forever. That identity will be sacrificed for the sake of attaining the power to protect the ones you love." he told the boy, "Everyone is watching you, to see what choice you'll make. Some want you to be the Hero they yearn for, some want you to give up and run away so they can be free to run rampant, some don't know or care what you choose, as long as they can see how you can be controlled for their reasons."

"I want to be Timmy Turner again. I don't want some crazy identity or anything, I just want to be **me** again. The me I was **before** I fell from the jungle gym." the brunet pleaded, "But I can't do it if these Spires stay up here! I can't just stand by and watch fairies die because of them, when I have the chance to make my home safe for everyone again!"

"You can't have both. And in reality, you can't have one of them at all." Danny murmured, "Timmy Turner is _dead_; you've been touched by Death and escaped with the curse of immortality as your reward. You are nothing more than someone who exists outside the loop of fate, with Timmy Turner's body and soul but whose experiences have altered him so badly, there can be no return." He held up the letter, displaying it for them both to see. "This note... it's someone who is asking you what you want. Here and now, before we go after the third Spire, make your choice. You can continue to be a Hero, and walk that path eternally, knowing that you can never stop or else one of the many enemies you'll make will take advantage and destroy everything, and knowing that you will be hurt time and time again. Or, you can forget it, and I will grant you mercy by opening the Veil and letting you pass through to find Death and continue your journey to the next world, to spare you from future misery.

"It is _your_ choice. It always has been. No one is forcing you to stay alive beyond Death."

The brunet only looked up at him helplessly, a strangely hopeless expression crossing over his face as he took in the sight of the letter in the glowing white-gloved hand. He made no move to answer, to make his choice, just motions of speech without sound as he appeared to be on the verge of his own breakdown.

"Hey! Timothy! We're ready! Let's go!" Tootie called out to them and he snapped back to normalcy, eyes wide as he uttered a small gasp, "Come on! The sun's almost gone and it'll be a perfect night to tear down that Spire!"

"Well?" Danny questioned and Timmy took back the letter, holding it out with a grim look as it suddenly caught fire and dwindled down to ashes in his fingers.

"I didn't ask to die, but there's no way I'm going to force my fate on others. No more mind games. If I'm going to be the one who gets the crud beat out of him for choosing to be a Hero, then fine. Let me take it." he growled, "I can survive anything now; I'm the perfect punching bag. Long as those other godkids grow up to achieve things I dreamed of doing, it'll be worth it!"

"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's be Heroes!" Danny exclaimed, shooting up from the roof and circling overhead with renewed enthusiasm, "Take on the bad guys and save the day! **This** is our destiny! **This** is what we're here for now! We didn't ask for it, but let's not prove that we're too scared of the unknown to do what we know is right!" The two raced to rejoin the group, ready and willing to face the next Spire.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The flight out to the Spire was riddled with apprehension. Timmy couldn't pull his eyes away from the metal hatches strewn across the empty lots surrounding the Dark Spire. He kept expecting something to go wrong, something that would trigger the awakening of the nullification field and take Caleb out once again, make him so sick he could barely see straight, do the same to Tootie who held onto Danny's other arm as he flew them along invisibly.

_"Hey, Timothy? About those anti-magic gizmos and junk?"_ Chester's voice came over the Fenton Phones and Timmy braced for bad news. _"I dunno if it's good but the detector isn't picking anything up."_

"It's not?" he asked in confusion, baffled by the report. He looked up at his cousin, who gave him a puzzled glance before returning to watch the flight path. "Are you sure? Is it turned on?"

_"'Course I'm sure! It's all active and everything! There's nothing on the screen; it's all blank!"_

_"That can't be right. The anti-magic device detector operates by listening for the signals transmitted between the Dark Spire's control servers and the individual units located in the bays. Different devices use different signals, that's how the detector can isolate and identify them as being nullifier, trap or destroyer."_ Caleb's voice came in, concerned and equally as confused, _"The only way it can be unable to pick up devices...."_

"...is if they've been shut off or moved out." Danny finished and laughed, "This Spire is totally undefended! Those trucks just made our job a hell of a lot easier!"

"Way cool! So let's hurry and get in!" Tootie cheered and the phantom banked towards the open door.

_"Why would Crocker leave this tower defenseless? It makes no sense."_ Caleb sighed but followed the group into the tower.

The tower interior had the exact same layout as its predecessor, even to the stack of crates that had yet to be moved. Danny touched down behind it and lifted his hands from both teens, snapping all three of them back to visibility. Moments later, Caleb shimmered into view, crouched by them with a grin.

"I remember doing stuff like this when I was only two years old. Man, that was fun! I almost wish my friends back then could see us now." he remarked and balanced himself on his feet as his wings folded back and vanished, "Okay, Timmy; any changes to the plan?"

"Danny, you've got the bombs. Hand off two for each of us and make sure the timers are set to five minutes." Timmy ordered softly, "The last bomb that gets placed is the one that gets activated, so call in every time you place one so we can keep track of all six charges. Danny, you can phase through the walls, so you'll probably get done first. Got any powers that can demolish manufacturing equipment?" The halfa nodded.

"Yeah, the Ecto Bomb can do some heavy damage, and if I get an all clear for it, I can use the Ghostly Wail." he replied and tapped at the crest attached to the base of his neck, "If I activate the Topaz Crest, I can use Phantom Ray and Phantom Lance to do damage. Since there aren't any nullifiers, I won't have to worry about my ectomana powers getting disrupted."

"You can do magic, too? I thought ghosts can't use magic." Tootie questioned in confusion, "Romi said that ghosts were immune to magic."

"I'm a special kind of ghost. That's all you need to know. And it's not magic, it's just ectoplasm with mana blended in for extra power." Danny told her and handed a pair of silver capsules to the brunet, "So that's what I've got. Why ask?"

"Get done, then spend as much time as you can destroying every anti-magic device production room you can find until it's time to bail. Out of all of us, you're the only one who can sit through an explosion untouched while still trashing the place." Timmy replied and looked over at the angel, "Caleb, you're still way stronger than me in magic, at least when it comes to those old spells of yours. If you get a chance, cast a spell or two at any equipment that might make more of those units."

"Modern mechanical devices are incredibly weak to electrical overload. I'll just use _Spark Wave_; the electricity should just jump out to hit whatever might have metal in it, and there should be plenty here." the angel agreed and took a pair of bombs for himself.

"Tootie, you and I will be doing the same. With that sword of yours, you can slice up whatever you like, and I'll use _Lustrare Spiralis_ to help out. Remember, we're doing that part after we plant the bombs and we won't have much time to destroy many rooms." the brunet added to his partner, "We'll probably get off a couple of shots before we have to bail. Did Caleb cast _Revive_ on you yet?" Tootie nodded eagerly. "Okay, then we're set. Ready?" He looked at everyone's faces, then nodded, "Then let's go!"

They rushed forth from their hiding place, dividing up and vanishing into different halls. Timmy held out a hand to the wall and mentally called to the mana within the materials for a slight transformation. A line of white began to race alongside them, a trail-marker to guide them out in a hurry when the time came for it.

_"Hey, guys! I got something on the detector!"_ Chester suddenly cried out. Timmy tapped at the device clipped to his ear as he and Tootie ran down the halls to the first target point.

_"Bit too late to turn on anything now. We're already inside."_ Danny remarked casually, _"Probably running a drill or something."_

_"Not from around the Spire! We've got incoming units from the next Spire over! A whole army of them! They're marching in and Sam says they'll be showing up on your doorstep in about five minutes! These things are moving fast!"_

"What the heck?! These things are getting reinforcements from another Spire?!" Timmy cried in alarm, "What for?! What about the units that are supposed to be for **this** Spire?!"

There was a sudden shriek that came over the Phones and Timmy winced painfully at the sound. What the heck was that?! He halted in the hallway, stopping Tootie as he pulled the earpieces free and rubbed his head. When he felt it was safe, he clipped them back on and called out for a status report.

_"Guys, those things are really motoring! Plant those bombs and get out fast!" _Chester urged, _"And what was up with that scream?!"_

_"I'm surrounded! Get out! Abort the mission! It's a trap!"_ Caleb screamed out, _"The units weren't picked up because they weren't **outside**! They were moved in here to ambush us!"_

"What about Danny?! Call him over to you for backup! The two of you can...!" Timmy ordered and the tower shook from two very loud thuds that sounded as though something very large and heavy had just slammed into the building.

_"What the hell is **this**?! I can't phase through! I just got sealed into some anti-ghost box!"_ the phantom yelled in aggravation, _"The walls...! It's made of the same crap as the black granite armor! It's magic-coated; I can't break through!"_ Timmy grabbed Tootie by the hand and began running back the way they had come.

"Hey! Wait, what's going on?!" she cried as she raced alongside him, "What's happening?!"

"We got set up, Tootie! Caleb's being swamped by the units that were supposed to have been outside and Danny's been trapped in a room that's magically enforced!" he told her and turned down another hall, "We have to help them get free before the anti-magic units from the other Spires get here!"

They hurried along the corridors, following the map projected from Timmy's armband. The sounds of explosions and the occasional curses from the Fenton Phones filled their ears as the angel and ghost both tried to break free of their confines. At one point, Caleb called back in, reporting he had managed to escape the ground units by summoning the power of the fork he carried to burn them to atoms. He'd tried to join the immortal and the Goth, but yelled in a fury as something else slammed into him and held him back.

_"My wings! It broke my wings! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I'm tied up, I can't move! What the hell material is this?! It's all over me!"_

_"Phantom Lance isn't punching through! Someone get me out of here!"_ Danny shouted in frustration.

"Danny! Where are you?!" Timmy called back frantically, stopping at one junction with Tootie as they searched the entrances for the next hall to take. She pointed at one and screamed, rooted in place from the fear of seeing a swarm of ground units tromping hurriedly down the hall towards them. The brunet spun around to check on her, spotted the encroaching army and shot forward to pull her away. _"Flagrare Lancea!"_ he cried and threw his arm ahead as if to fling the massive fiery spear down the hall and into the mass of anti-magical machinations. He jumped aside with the young Goth in his arms, shielding her from the explosion of flames and debris as the spell ran its course and demolished the threat.

"This isn't how it was supposed to go! What kind of craziness is in that old man's head?!" Tootie yelled in a mix of terror and rage, shaking even as Timmy set her back down on the floor.

_"The central hall! I was flying down the central hall when this slab of granite just jammed itself from the side of the wall in front of me! I tried to go back, but another chunk of it slammed onto the other end and when I stuck my arm through the other sides of the hallway, I found it was also packed with that black granite armor! Floor and ceiling; this man thought of everything!"_ Danny called out, _"Are you and Tootie still okay?!"_

"We had a run-in with our own batch of units, but we're still in one piece! Hang tight, we'll come get you out! Caleb, we'll come for you as soon as Danny's free to help with whatever has you tied down!" the brunet shot back and pointed at another hall, "That one should take us to the central hall. We'll follow it until we find Danny. Chester! How's the outside?!" The two magic-users ran into the next hall as they waited for a response.

_"Man, this isn't looking good. The units are moving in from all over the place. Sam's timing it... three minutes!"_ the blonde answered at last.

"Count them out! How many nullifiers are there?!" Timmy yelled back, "I have a plan!"

_"Checking, checking...! Dude! None! It's all ground destroyers!"_

"Okay, Wanda! Can you hear me?"

_"Loud and clear, Sport! Are you okay? Nothing's attacked you?"_

"Not yet at least. Listen, this may sound nuts, but I'm going to make a wish about those units. They're not protected by nullifiers, so it should work. Pass one of the Fenton Phones to Andromeda." Timmy told her, then turned to Tootie, "Tootie, there might be too many for my godparents to get rid of, so get in touch with Romi! On my mark, wish them to Mars!" The young Goth looked startled, then nodded as she took one of the Fenton Phones for herself.

"Get ready! I'm gonna make a wish!" she called out.

_"All right, Tootie! Go for it!"_ the raven-haired fairy exclaimed.

"Cosmo! Wanda!" Timmy yelled out.

"Romi!" Tootie echoed.

"I wish the anti-magic units were teleported to Mars!" the two godchildren called out in unison.

_"Guys, Mars? What the hell? ...Whoa! It actually worked! That's the biggest cloud of pink, green and blue smoke I ever saw!"_ Chester whooped, _"Okay! Now get your butts out of there before worse crap happens!"_ Timmy and Tootie turned down another hall, breathless as they rushed to the rescue.

"Yeah, I know, we're almost...." he began and blinked at the familiar half-spheres of black that lined the walls of the hallway. A humming sounded and he skid to a stop, grabbing Tootie by one arm. "Get out!" he screamed in a panic and twisted around in the corridor, dragging the startled girl along, "Move it! Hurry!"

The hum grew louder and as the central lights of each nullifier dome bloomed into red glory, Timmy shoved the young Goth before him and out of the range of the nullifier units. The first wave hit and he screamed in pain, magic and mana tangled within him being torn away almost violently. The Adventurer's Map 3000 on his arm sparked and exploded, shooting another wave of agony through him as shards buried themselves into the flesh and bone. He dimly heard Tootie's panicked screams as another wave of the nullifier field pulsed through him. Senses deadening as the surges of anti-magic continued passing over him, he closed his eyes to the blurring vision of hall and girl and black domes. The sensation of falling back into a fog overcame him and he sank into it with a wistful sigh.

It all seemed so futile, this questing to bring down the Spires. And way too much work, too. It was easier to just sleep and let oblivion carry him away to a merciful darkness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Timothy?! Timothy, come in!" Chester cried into Fenton Phones and looked over at the other teens in hysterics, "I lost contact! He's not answering to anything after that scream! Tootie's too out of it to talk straight; I can't figure out what's going on!" The group had jumped in sudden shock when Wanda unexpectedly shrieked and shot for the Spire only moments before Chester announced he'd lost touch with the young immortal.

Cosmo quickly grabbed onto Wanda, holding her back as she continued trying to get to her godchild. She struggled in his arms, reaching for the tower with pale face and wide, tear-filled eyes.

_"Timmy! Sunu! Min cherishen sunu!"_ she wailed piteously as her husband ground his teeth together, baring them as a stream of emotions passed over his face.

"Hey! You can't call him 'Timmy'! That's against the law!" Elmer pointed out and earned a punch from Trixie.

"That doesn't matter now! We have to go and help them escape! Timothy's been taken down, Danny Phantom's trapped somewhere and Caleb's tangled up in something he can't break through!" she declared and jumped up, "There's no nullifier field near the base of that tower, so magic is free for all of us to use!" The trio of fairies stared at her, then all of them vanished in puffs of colored smoke.

"Oh, great. So now we walk?" Sanjay grumbled, folding his arms over his chest. Trixie sighed and closed her laptop, flicking her hair back.

"Apollo!" she declared and her pendant burst into red smoke, revealing a fourth fairy among them. The group gasped in shock. "I wish all of us together were standing at the base of the Dark Spire!" the Popular exclaimed.

"We're gonna catch it from Jorgen later, but okay." the red-haired fairy remarked and brandished the wand to grant her wish.

They appeared at tower in time to watch Cosmo and Wanda float back to back before the wall of the building, wands aimed directly at the Spire. Apollo yelped and immediately turned himself into a barrier to cover the teens as the fairy couple unleashed a stream of magic powerful enough to blast open a hole in the black granite armor. Romi fluttered behind them, wand in one hand.

"It's open! Let's go!" Wanda declared and blinked as Cosmo darted forward to block her path, a strangely eager smile on his face.

"Leave the units to me." he whispered, "Please?" The pink-haired fairy looked puzzled but nodded. "Whoo-hoo! Catch you later, Loveykins!" he cheered and zipped into the Spire. Apollo poofed back to normalcy and trailed after Trixie as the group of teens followed the fairy trio inside the foreboding tower.

Cosmo split off from the group in laughter, waving goodbye as he went off in search of the stray hordes of anti-magic devices, wand vanishing and becoming replaced by the Windcutter Scythe. Wanda raced down the halls, leading the group with single-minded tenacity towards the location of the brunet and the Goth. Sam touched fingers to her forehead once, frowned and shook her head.

"We'd better hurry and get Timothy and Tootie back. Danny's not doing well in that box." she reported, "He's using up too much ectomana trying to break out."

"Eeks! Nullifiers!" Romi suddenly cried and the S-List skidded to a halt at the entrance to a hall. Tootie raced back and forth before it, wailing and sobbing hysterically as Timmy lay on his back within the corridor of nullifiers. Ribbons of pale pink spiraled around him, fading into nothingness the further they spun from the teen. Wanda screamed and waved her hands at the scene.

"Get him out of there!" she shrieked as the sounds of muffled explosions began in the distance, "Get him out! _Get him out!_"

"Tootie! Come here!" Romi cried and hugged the sobbing girl while Chester and the other boys raced into the hall to grab onto the unconscious brunet and drag him out into safer zones. Gathered around him a good distance from the corridor, the teens tried everything they could think of to wake him up.

"He's very cold." Trixie whispered shakily, clutching her fairy in her arms like a stuffed animal, "So very cold."

"He's not breathing. No heartbeat." Sam muttered, checking the young immortal quickly and calmly, "Damn. It's going to be harder to tell if he's okay or not."

"He's **not** breathing and has **no** heartbeat; those are already good ways of telling somebody's **not** okay!" Chester yelled in an incredulous tone that rose to a near-girlish shriek. Tootie sat on the floor, hugging her fairy as she hiccuped during her dying sobs.

"Ti-Timothy's an im-m-mortal...." she mumbled brokenly, "He-he doesn't need a h-heartbeat or air...." Sanjay studied him carefully, narrowing his eyes.

"Excuse me, but although our good friend has no need of breathing or heartbeats, he does still need to have blood flow. Correct?" he asked. Sam nodded, working on pulling shards of metal from the ruined arm with Elmer's help. "Then how would one remedy the symptom of a very pale face?"

"Like this!" Wanda butted in and whipped out her wand. Romi and Apollo both leaped up in shock.

"You can't! It's against Da Rules!" Andromeda cried in horror.

"You do that and you'll trigger the second biggest scandal in Fairy World history!" Apollo hissed, "I've told you once already, but you can't seem to get it through that mass of pink hair that's sucked the blood out of your brain!" The other fairy only smiled grimly.

"Oh? Only the second biggest? I'll have to work at it next time." she laughed and the star on her wand burst into a supernova of light. The S-List pulled back, watching in awe as a spiral of sparkling pink spun down from the wand and into the boy lying prone on the floor. Tootie stayed where she was, hands clasped together anxiously. Slowly, color returned to the brunet's face and, after another moment, Timothy flinched, then slowly opened his eyes, a faintly dazed expression on his face. Wanda lowered her wand and sank to the floor tiredly, wings fluttering weakly as she sighed in relief. Sam moved forward and helped the boy sit up, giving her a puzzled look.

"I always thought it was dangerous to mix different kinds of magic." the older Goth remarked and Wanda chuckled halfheartedly.

"Not when there isn't much difference between them, dear. For someone who has spiritual powers, you don't know that much about magic as a whole." she replied vaguely and smiled up at her godchild, "Feeling better, Timmy?"

"Yeah, much. Thanks, Wanda." the brunet replied in surprise, then blinked, "Hey, you called me-!"

"Against the law! You may be our friend, but even **you** can't have Timmy's name!" Chester told him sternly, "So knock it off!" Sam looked at them quizzically.

"What are you talking about? Don't you know that this **is** Tim-?!" her words were cut off when the brunet reached up and clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Shut up!" he hissed in exasperation, "My name is Timothy Neogene! Got it?! Timothy! **Not** Timmy! Timmy's dead!" He winced as he pulled his arm back and carefully ran his fingers along the ruined flesh. "My map.... I thought it was safe from nullifiers, but I guess not." he murmured and held his hand over the injuries, _"Mana around me, mend this broken form! Cure!"_ Curative mana spun over the arm, lighting it up with a soft glow that revealed a perfectly restored limb when the magic faded away. He stood with the group and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks for the help, but how did you all get here?" he asked in confusion.

"Trixie wished us here with this guy, Apollo. I didn't know she had a fairy godparent too." Chester pointed out in renewed surprise, "I guess she was like the rest of us, miserable as hell because of Timmy's death."

"His name is Apollo? Is he the fairy whose godchild you didn't want to tell me about?" Tootie pouted, glaring up at him.

"I _couldn't_ tell you about them. It was against Da Rules." the brunet replied with a shrug.

"It applies to _fairies_." Apollo growled, "Not humans."

"It _seemed_ like a good idea at the time." Timothy shot back and looked down the hall, "But now what? Danny's in a hall that we can't reach unless we pass through there and we can't get close to it." Sam cleared her throat and cracked her knuckles, a grin on her face.

"Leave this to me!" she declared and stepped before the corridor, "Okay, let's see. These things don't like fairy magic and mana magic, right? Good thing Danny told me these things don't work on anything that's ectoplasm-based." She reached into a small bag that was tied to a belt at her waist and pulled out what appeared to be a tube of lipstick. Opening it up, she twirled the little dial until the bright green lip coloring emerged from within the case.

"Lipstick? Are you gonna put on makeup before you do something about the hall?" Chester asked incredulously. Sam grinned, slipped on a pair of sunglasses she pulled from the same bag, and shook her head, aiming the tube of lipstick at the first nullifier dome and clicking down on a small button built into the tube. A green laser-like beam of energy burst forth from the lipstick and smashed into the dome, blowing it apart as completely as one of the ghost boy's ectoplasmic rays. She continued walking down the hall, firing on the nullifiers as the group began to follow her, baffled by the sight of a Goth using lipstick to destroy machinery.

"One of the perks of being friends with Danny is you get access to tons of weird but effective ghost-hunting gear. The glasses are for safety, but they look wicked cool when you're firing off ecto guns of any sort." she remarked conversationally as they moved along the hall. At the end of the corridor, when all of the domes were blasted away, she blew the tendrils of smoke from the end of the lipstick and calmly twisted it back down into its case, popping the lid back on at the end. "This handy little ecto-laser was something his mother invented." she finished with a grin, removing the glasses and putting them away.

"Danny Phantom?" Elmer questioned in confusion and the Goth winced.

"Hell no! My boyfriend, Danny Fenton. His parents are ghost hunters." she shot back and waved the lipstick around dismissively, "He just lets Phantom borrow some of the equipment for his own personal use."

"What use would a ghost have for ghost-hunting apparatuses?" Sanjay asked, rubbing his head at the baffling remark. Sam rolled her eyes at the question.

"Hunting ghosts, duh. I mean, what else is he gonna do with it? Decorate his house?" she replied dryly, "Amity Park's best ghost hunter is Danny Phantom, another ghost. He's our officially recognized protector, considering a lot of crud he's gone through for us. Long as he keeps up a Hero record, Danny Fenton's parents won't try to shoot him out of the sky. Not like they could anyway; he's immune to about eighty percent of the world's ghost-hunting technology. Caleb's the guy to thank for that." She made a hurried gesture as she stuffed the lipstick tube away, "Well, come on! Speaking of Danny, he's still in trouble! Let's go, let's go!" The group hurried on to find the wall of black granite at the entrance to one of the halls in an intersection of three corridors. Sam reached out, hovered her palm over it, then turned a worried look to the group of friends.

"He's almost gone! Please, get him out of there!" she begged and stepped aside as Timothy took her place and ran his hands along the granite. He braced his legs, planted his open palms against the rock and shut his eyes, focusing on the slab before him. Wanda, Romi and Apollo fluttered in a close group, watching closely. Slowly, spreading from where the boy's hands made contact with the granite, the slab began to ripple. Inch by inch, the effect spread, turning solid rock to gelatinous form. Timothy gasped once but made no motion to stop, eyes shut tightly as the change moved on.

Gel-like granite rippled faster, shaking as the color began to lighten from black to gray to a translucent color that could only be thought of as water being forced to stay upright. Through the quaking of liquefying rock, the figure of Danny Phantom lay sprawled on the floor, now-golden aura fading to almost nonexistence. Sam cried his name in alarm and the brunet echoed the pained emotion, finally allowing the transformed slab to come crashing down. Water drenched him as it splashed over the group in a miniature wave. It didn't slow the Goth a bit as she raced through it to reach the ghost and scoop him up, hugging him tightly. Timothy sank to his knees, breathing hard from the effort of intense concentration as Tootie and Trixie both went to his side.

"You turned a huge slab of black granite into pure water!" Tootie breathed in awe, "How?!"

"With a lot more thinking than I'm used to." he mumbled and hugged himself, teeth chattering, "I'm exhausted.... Can't move...." Sanjay entered the seal that had trapped the ghost and studied the walls carefully.

"There is damage to this structure that does not look like a beam caused it. Remember how we heard the sounds of explosions earlier? I believe our spectral ally used the time bombs in an attempt to free himself." he remarked in a matter-of-fact tone.

"He hurt himself doing it." Sam murmured, rocking back and forth with the phantom in her embrace. The S-List looked first at her in confusion, then down at the ghost who was in a similar state to Timothy's own just minutes ago. The only differences between them were the pained expression that remained etched on his face, several lacerations that nearly shredded his suit to bits, and a particularly deep gash that ripped along the side of his torso, allowing green fluid to drip into the water that spread over the tile. "He's losing too much ectoplasm, and the ecto crystals are all drained." she went on softly, "If this keeps up, he'll... he'll...."

"Guys!" Timothy managed to call out, "Go on ahead and look for Caleb! Get him out of whatever he's trapped in and bring him here!" He paused for air, then went on, "Trixie, go with them. Use a wish if you need it to get closer to him; Tootie, go stand guard at the end of the hall and make sure no other units come at us." Another pause. "Wanda, where's Cosmo?"

"He's taking care of the additional anti-magic traps on his own." she replied worriedly, "I didn't want him to, really, but something about him made me say yes. I think... I think he'll be fine on his own." The group of teens ran off, following Trixie's lead as she wished for a magical device that could track down the angelic android. Tootie gave Timmy a hug before heading off to stand watch over the end of the hall with Romi, her Laser Blade out and ready for action. Timmy managed to get to his feet and joined Sam and his cousin, kneeling by them in concern.

"Not much time left." the Goth murmured to him, "Any second now, there won't be enough ectoplasm to sustain Danny Phantom and he'll change back." Timmy nodded and held his hands out.

_"Mana around me! Mend the wounds of this broken form! Cure!"_ he repeated softly and watched the spell heal the halfa's injuries, "That should do it. I can't restore his ectoplasm supply though. He's going to have to rely on what's left of the ectomana mix to keep him in Phantom form until we're out of here." He tried to get to his feet again, failed and sighed helplessly. "This mission was a complete failure; we'll be lucky to get out in one piece!" he blurted out in distress.

"Someone's coming!" Tootie called back an alert and the tiny group turned their attentions to the hall as a shadow passed along it. Then there was the sound of cheerful whistling and Cosmo appeared in the corridor with a much larger version of the Windcutter strapped to his back. The fairy had taken human form, probably to avoid ensnarement from the butterfly nets the traps used. He paused in the middle of his tune, blinked at them all, then looked down at the floor, lifting one leg to watch water drip from his shoe in curiosity.

"Did the tower go to the bathroom here?" he asked in confusion.

"Cosmo! You're okay!" Timmy exclaimed in relief and the green-haired fairy blinked at him again.

"Something happen?" he aimed the question at his wife. Wanda smiled tiredly from where she stood in the shallow lake.

"He needed a magical boost to wake him up. We found him in a nullifier hall, unconscious." she replied softly and the taller fairy stiffened, a faintly dangerous look flashing across his face.

"Huh. Really?" He relaxed and shook himself off, interlocking his hands behind his head, "I only got some of the units. There's more coming, with nullifiers. I can't get close to any of those ones."

"How soon before they get here?" Sam asked, eyes wide with worry. Cosmo shrugged.

"Couple minutes, maybe less. Can't tell time here. No clocks." he replied brokenly and winced, "Ow."

The sounds of many feet splashing through water called their attentions back to the second hallway as the S-List arrived on the scene with Caleb stumbling along after them. Chester stared down at the detector in his hands and panicked.

"Oh, man! **Not** cool! We've got more units coming this way and fast! Nullifiers and destroyers! Couple of fairy traps mixed in, too, but lots and **lots** of destroyers!" he exclaimed, "The shape we're in, we're _dead_ if those things find us here!" Everyone looked to Timothy for a plan. The brunet remained where he was, resting on one knee by the older Goth as she held the still insensate phantom in her arms.

"It's a loss. We have to get out of here. Everyone with fairies, wish yourselves out of here while we still have magic available to us!" he finally declared, "Cosmo, Wanda! Do you still have enough magic to grant a few more wishes?"

"Now that we're together again, yeah. Fire away, Sport!" Wanda called back.

"Then I wish everyone who can be taken by magic was back at the meeting place right now except for the three of us and Danny!" the boy announced.

"What are you going to do here by yourself?!" Tootie cried in alarm, "We can't abandon you!" Timothy waved her off.

"Just go! Danny can't be wished out of the tower, so I need to get him out another way! I'll join you all later, just get out!" he snapped and watched as the fairies reluctantly granted wishes to whisk the S-List and their allies away. The brunet barely moved in time to catch his cousin as his support vanished in a puff of pink smoke. "Can't let them know that Danny really _can_ be affected by wishes in Topaz Mode. It's too big a clue to who and what he is." he muttered under his breath, "But now I gotta get the four of us out of here the normal way." He looked up at his fairy godfather. "Cosmo! You're in human form; help me get Danny up!" Timmy called out.

Grabbing onto his normal wand, Cosmo waved it once to poof the Windcutter back into whatever magical space it was often kept in, then slid the star-topped wand into his pocket and jogged towards Timmy and Danny. It took a bit of effort and some struggling but with the boy's help they got the phantom propped onto his back. Danny groaned once, but made no other response to show if he was coming out of the coma-like state. Recovered from the magical transfer, Wanda followed her husband's lead and took on a similar human form but roughly their godchild's size. Helping Timmy get to his feet, she slung one of his arms around her shoulders and braced them both.

"Let's just hope we don't end up bumping into those things. Do we know which way to go to get out?" Wanda asked worriedly. Timmy nodded.

"I left a line of white granite along the walls as Tootie and I were running through them. If we can find it, we can follow it back out of here." the brunet murmured. They headed off down the hall, hurrying to beat the advancing anti-magic units to the set of corridors that bore the trail that was their only hope of escape.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Warning, strong language ahead. Found a spot with WiFi, but I have to hoof it a couple blocks and sweet talk a manager. Hope I can keep it up so I can do regular updates again.

* * *

11

The group blinked in surprise as they found themselves once again standing atop the roof of the building they had staked out for viewing. Caleb immediately plopped unceremoniously down on the concrete and sighed in irritation. He'd been found by the S-List in one hall, wrapped up in what he had first thought was rubber tubing that had been fired on him from some hidden launcher. But casting magic on it had no effect beyond singeing, freezing, and drenching himself and slicing a few strands of hair from his head, and trying to use pure physical power to snap them apart had been impossible. The damn thing had been lucky enough to pin his arms at an angle that refused to allow him even a millimeter of room to work the machinery for such a feat. It took every last member of the S-List to pry the wrappings apart enough for him to finish the job with android strength.

And his wings! Crushed by the pressure of the tubing, the mechanical peripherals he'd designed and built personally were completely destroyed, rendering him ground-bound until he could return to New York and replace them with another set. Simple procedure, yes, but nonetheless aggravating, knowing a mere human with less sophisticated technology had managed to severely damage him on not one, not two, but now three occasions! He found himself with a second reason for helping to destroy the Spires; revenge!

"But not before downloading all of the information about it first, of course." he remarked to himself, simmering in frustration and embarrassment. Chester looked back at him in confusion, received no additional answer, then turned back to watching the Spire through binoculars.

"It's taking a while. You don't think the units got to 'em first, do you?" he asked Trixie worriedly, "Can you or Tootie wish 'em out?"

"We can't use our magic on either the ghost or Timothy. Both of them are immune to fairy magic, and Timothy can only be affected by the magic of his own fairy godparents. No one else can touch him because it violates Da Rules." Apollo grumbled, sitting on the edge of the rooftop. Trixie looked puzzled, eyebrows furrowed together delicately as she thought that over.

"Huh? Wait, I thought you said wishes involving _Timmy Turner_ were forbidden by Da Rules." she pointed out.

"Cha. He's dead. What do I look like, a necromancer?" the fairy growled.

"Okay, this is confusing." Elmer complained, rubbing his head. "Fairy rules say that nobody can make wishes that involve Timmy Turner 'cause he's dead, right?" Apollo and Romi nodded in unison. "And nobody can make wishes about Timothy Neogene because he's immune to it, right?" Another nod, but it took a little longer for the response, and both fairies glanced at each other worriedly for a moment. "Well, if Timmy's immunity is based on his death, what gives Timothy **his** immunity?"

"Um, the fact that he's dead too?" Tootie put in helpfully, a shaky smile on her face. Trixie's eyebrows furrowed together again as she tilted her head in thought.

"Hmm. I dunno. Apollo's granted wishes about some dead stuff before and he's never given me grief about it. Why would two dead boys, one of whom is now alive again as an immortal, suddenly get a big 'Wands Off' sticker slapped on them?" she questioned. She, Chester and Elmer all went silent, pondering the puzzle set before them. Sanjay frowned, taking up watch of the Spire when they got distracted.

"I would like to know why it is that Timothy died and was resurrected, but the same could not be done for our dear Timmy! If he could be made an immortal, why not do the same for the Heart of Dimmsdale?" he griped.

"Don't ask dangerous questions." Caleb muttered, "If you're that worried about Timothy, Chester, then why don't you head back down there with Trixie as backup and see if you can find him?" The blonde jerked his head up, turned a slight shade of red, then shrugged.

"Whatever, Dude." he sighed and headed for the fire escape. Trixie jumped to her feet and raced after him with Apollo trailing her.

"Hey! Wait for me!" she exclaimed and hurried down the steps with him. Elmer blinked and lifted his head from where he'd propped it on his hands while thinking.

"You don't suppose that the reason why both Timmy and Timothy are immune to fairy magic is because they're actually the same guy, do you?" he remarked in sudden revelation. Tootie stiffened, eyes going wide as her heart pounded. Was this it? Were they about to find out the truth? Sanjay brought down his binoculars to glare at the heavy-set boy.

"Elmer..." he growled, "Shut up. Do not be stupid and babble on about things that are impossible. Timmy was buried. Timothy was not. Timmy is from Dimmsdale. Timothy is from New York City. Timmy wore pink. Timothy wears black. They are entirely different people." The chubbier boy looked up at him, blinked again, then sighed, dropping his head back down onto his hands.

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe it was just wishful thinking." he muttered, unaware of the android muffling a fit of snickers behind them and the young Goth uttering a soft breath of relief.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was too dark to really see much, and Chester was already missing the night-vision granted him by the binoculars Sanjay had picked up in his place. Trixie wished for flashlights and all three ventured across the open lots towards the Dark Spire. He fiddled with the Fenton Phones as they walked, hoping that at least those still worked on the brunet after the fiasco in the nullifier hall.

"Hey, Timothy? Can you hear me?" he called out.

_"Huh? Chester? Yeah, I read you. What can you see from the roof?"_ the young immortal replied.

"Actually, me and Trixie are on our way to get you out." Chester remarked and looked down at the detector, "I'm the one with the gizmo, so that should help us figure out how you're doing against those anti-magic things."

_"Geez, why don't you people ever listen to me when I tell you to do something?"_ Timothy complained, _"Oh crud!"_ The tone suddenly changed, fearful, anxious. _"Move it! Back the other way! Cosmo, don't charge them, you idiot! Wanda, use the Hammer! I wish Danny would wake up already.... Agh! Don't grant it!"_

_"Whoa... hey.... Yagh! What the hell is going on?! Gah! Shutting off Topaz Mode!"_ Danny Phantom was up again. But, did a wish really work on a ghost?

"What's happening?" Trixie asked as she and the blonde both broke into a run for the Spire. Chester made to reply, then skid to a halt as part of the tower was blown outward, a loud eerie howl filling the air as waves of green light burst from the side of the Spire. "What's that?!" Trixie shrieked, hands flying up to her ears, "Owowow! It hurts my ears!"

_"Owww.... Danny! For the love of God, **warn** me when you're gonna do that! Everyone, out! Fly, fly! They're on us!"_ Timothy's voice ordered sharply and the two S-List teens watched the last of the team finally escape the Spire and head for them. They cheered for the moment, seeing the brunet, ghost and two fairies touch down with them, then yelled in shock as they spotted a mass of the anti-magic units quickly exiting the broken section of the tower, marching towards them with all the speed they possessed. The blonde glanced down at the detector; destroyers and nullifiers, not friendly.

"Show's over! Let's go!" Danny yelled, grabbing onto both Chester and Trixie and flying them up and away from the lot. Cosmo and Wanda waved their wands to magically lighten their godchild, then grabbed him by the hands to carry him off as well.

In all, a disaster of a mission.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A.J. looked up from his laptop as the group of teens finally entered the Ivory Tower and selected random parts of the meeting room to collapse into. Chester flung himself face down onto a couch; Trixie cleared her throat loudly until he made room for her to flop back onto it herself; Elmer and Sanjay both plopped into chairs, sour expressions on their faces. Caleb sat against the wall in a yoga-like position, resting one arm on his knee as he gave the room a cursory scan before closing his eyes to rest. Sam and Danny picked out a second sofa and flopped there, the ghost resting his head on the Goth's shoulder as she absently ran her fingers through his hair, sighing once in frustration. Tootie sank into another chair, too exhausted to keep her eyes open for much longer. Timothy looked as though he would have gladly joined the rest of the team in their search for rest, but chose instead to sit at a table and drop his head into his arms, muttering angrily to himself. Four fairies dropped onto the tabletop with him, sagging against one another as they sighed in relief.

"I take it things didn't go well?" A.J. asked and lifted an eyebrow at the fairy count, "Whose fairy is the red guy?"

"Mine." Trixie called out in exasperation, "Doesn't matter if you guys know about him now. Jorgen can't come into Dimmsdale to take him away."

"Name's Apollo. Lemme sleep." the red fairy grumbled.

"Things went beyond not well." Sanjay reported in irritation, shoving his glasses further up his face and twisting them around to align the lenses, "The magic-users and the ghost were led into an ambush! All kinds of traps were set up inside the Dark Spire to stop them from being able to detonate the time bombs and destroy the tower."

"Caleb's broken again." Elmer added in helpfully and the android snapped awake, scowling.

"I resent that! You make it sound like I'm some little toy that got stepped on by mistake!" he griped, "The trap crushed the peripherals that compose my wings. It's easily replaced, but still an annoyance."

"Timothy collapsed in a hall full of nullifiers. It messed him up pretty badly, but I don't know if it could be enough to do anything." the rust-haired boy went on, "I mean, how does one kill an immortal?"

"Destroy the body. If he stayed in there long enough, there wouldn't have been enough magic and mana in his body to keep it together." Wanda sighed tiredly, "It would have shriveled and turned to dust."

"Good thing Tootie wasn't in it." Romi remarked worriedly, "I'd hate for something like that to happen to her!"

"Ouch." A.J. commented neutrally.

"And Danny Phantom over there got locked in some magic-coated box that wouldn't let him out. He hit it with the charges, but that didn't work and on top of that, it knocked him out." Elmer added, jerking his thumb at the ghost.

"So I was a touch slow in going intangible on the last one! Big whoop!" Danny growled, shooting him a vivid yellow-green glare that looked far more menacing when set against the furious violet of Sam's own. "I can't use Ghostly Wail in Topaz Mode, so I had to improvise!"

"At least we were there to help out." Chester remarked as he sat up and rubbed his head, "So long as we stayed away from destroyers and junk, we can move around inside that tower just fine. Bailing Timothy out of the hall, pulling that rubber junk off of Caleb, we did pretty good. Too bad we don't have anything to protect us from the stuff that dishes damage."

"What about the magitech suits? Caleb said those were being designed to protect non-magic-users from being hurt." Trixie remarked questioningly, "Can't he and A.J. make more of those for everyone?"

"Caleb told you about the armor?" A.J. asked in surprise, "Well, I can bump it up on higher priority, but it's gonna take a while to work out all the bugs and make enough for everyone. We only have the prototype body-suit."

"Then let's work on finishing those suits! A big chunk of the anti-magic unit army got sent off to Mars and Cosmo there blew away a lot more from inside the Dark Spire, so the numbers for the tower should be small for a while." Chester planned out brightly. The other teens perked up at the idea.

"Yeah, and we can use the disc Trixie got to plan another route to the Spire supports!" Elmer pitched in excitedly, "That way, Crocker's traps won't bother Caleb, Danny or Timothy and Tootie ever again!"

"We will reassess the plan of attack, perhaps get additional equipment that is not magic-based to use...!" Sanjay added cheerfully.

"Forget it." Timmy suddenly put in and lifted his head at the group of startled people, a grim expression on his face, "No one is going after that tower. Not after what happened tonight." The S-List looked at each other in confusion, then turned their collective puzzlement on him. "I don't want to risk anyone else doing this." the brunet told them harshly, getting up from the table to be sure everyone heard him, "Chester, Trixie, even Caleb and Danny, all of them have been put in danger or hurt because of me, because of what I'm doing. Even Cosmo and Wanda are getting hurt!" He shook his head furiously. "No! No more! I'm not letting anyone else near those Spires!" he yelled.

The team stared at him in shock. Tootie woke at the sound of his yelling and blinked up at him in a sleepy daze. The four fairies looked up at him in a mix of astonishment and hopelessness. Caleb only gave a huff of disapproval, shaking his head. Danny Phantom, despite his tired state, leaped from the sofa and took to the air, aura blazing white and eyes shining the same vicious bright color as before.

"You're **quitting**?!" he raged, "After all I said about protecting this city and the people you cared about here?! You're just gonna throw in the towel and let some old geezer and a lunatic kid win?!"

"I never said that. I only said that no one else is taking on those Spires." Timmy replied coolly, "From now on, leave them to me. I can survive whatever it throws at me, and if I remember to take the Rune Staff with me, then I won't have to worry about nullifiers either."

"It's late, we're tired and frustrated. Now is not the time to make rash decisions." Caleb announced, getting up from the floor, "Everyone should head home and call it a night. In the morning, we'll figure out what to do. Our enemy has changed tactics. We must do the same." He looked over at the African-American at his laptop. "A.J., have you gained any new information or discoveries in regards to the switch?"

"Everything turned up inconclusive. We're still missing something. I can only assume that the switch is connected to Crocker's fits, which were a result of Timmy's death. There's nothing to pin the switch itself directly to the circumstances of Timmy's accident." he replied and shook his head helplessly, "If I just had more clues, more evidence, maybe something more would reveal itself." The teens all began leaving the Ivory Tower, some upset, some puzzled, some concerned, all exhausted. Destroying the third Spire was not going to be done as easily as the first two. The game had changed, new rules were in play, and if they couldn't put together a new strategy to fight back with, Remy and Crocker would become unstoppable.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Main Control Spire~

It had worked.

Crocker looked over the results of the data feed from the Spire that had been attacked. He'd known it was going to be a target; he'd spotted the blonde, Chester McBadbat, skateboarding past it several days in succession. It made sense. If the new Timmy had recruited A.J. into the scheme to bring down the Spires, why not add in the other childhood friend? He'd sent off a comment about it to Remy, just as a facade of loyalty more than an actual alert. He hadn't been surprised to hear the rich brat jump onto the visual and scream at him to do all he could to either capture the boy or 'remove' him from the scene. Of course, he wouldn't harm the youngster; there had been enough bloodshed in the city and Crocker was in no hurry to repeat tragedies. So he had the liberty of sending out several of his modified destroyers to search for Chester, scattered among the hundreds of others ordered to chase him towards the specialized units.

And somehow, before he had a chance to reach the boy, Remy interrupted the recovery orders and absconded with him. Probably an attempt to lure the new Timmy into a field for 'disposal'. Obviously, the move failed, for here was data coming in that the Spire had picked up nearly a dozen moving life-forms within its walls. The cameras there had been disabled so as to relieve their burden of data from the server control system, but other sensors brought in information about several warm-blooded figures racing willy-nilly through the building to rescue the three primary saboteurs from the traps. He had been surprised, however, to learn that there had been another life-form running through the halls with the brunet.

It was a tad disappointing to see. Crocker had found himself eager to see how his new nemesis would fare in an altered tower, and uttered a disheartened sigh when he fell to the effects of the nullification field. It was still a mystery to him; Crocker had designed the nullification field to only work on fairies and fairy magic. Why it would affect this human boy was a bizarre conundrum.

Still the ambush **had** worked and the Spire remained standing. Remy would be pleased by that.

But there was the matter of the strange set of data that had come in at odd times. The sudden loss of several hundred ground unit signals, the violent blast that demolished a portion of the granite armor, the sudden arrival, then disappearance of several life-forms around and within the tower, a second violent burst that blasted another hole in the tower, energy readings dancing wildly on the sensors; he'd be busy with the data for days.

"Turner. Are you watching all of this from where you are?" Crocker murmured from his chair, head bent as he pored over the printed photo of the new Timmy and the sheets of data collected by the Spire's sensors, "Does it hurt to see what has happened since you left? Is Paradise truly Paradise if you can see the misery and agony we inflict on each other because of you?"

There was no answer, and there had never been one. Not in the four years that he'd begun asking it. He looked up at a second photo, framed and placed carefully before him on the desk, and smiled, a twisted little grin that bordered instability.

"All it took to destroy our Heart was a simple gesture and a selfish dream. Turner, can my wish be granted someday?" the elderly man murmured softly, "I wish...."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was impossible.

The thought continued to spin through Remy's mind even as he sat before the fireplace in the study, gazing into its flames as he turned the cell phone over in his hand. The same phone that should have been the lure to get Timothy out to a nice open, empty, desolate lot where a ton of nullifiers and destroyers had lain in wait for him. If he managed to survive the ambush there, there was a great chance of him being so tired from the battle that he'd have nothing to combat Remy's wishes with, especially if they were being made in regards to that Chester punk. He would have had all the information he desired had everything worked according to plan. But Timothy hadn't fallen for the diversion; rather, he sent in one of his own in the form of that double-crossing Trixie witch.

He'd been caught with his pants down, figuratively speaking, when the mongrel showed up in the middle of a wishing duel and then that impossibility occurred. How? _How?!_

Cosmo and Wanda, Timmy Turner's fairy godparents, should have been taken from the world for failing to protect their godchild! It was in Da Rules; the greatest crime a fairy godparent could commit was to allow a child in their care to meet Death, and severe punishment would be dished out accordingly for that crime. He'd demanded to see that rule and read through the entire section of Da Rules concerning it until every line, every situation, every instance of it was burned into his memory. There was no loophole. Yet, Wanda escaped with her neck in one piece and Timothy had gained control of her, used her to render his own fairy incapacitated so that he was utterly defenseless while that mongrel paraded his friends through the mansion and out the door. Don't think with the southern head, indeed! Juandissimo should have taken his own advice, not gone off lusting after some pink-haired widow and ignoring his wishes. Two minutes with a nullifier had served to remind him who was in command.

Still, it was of little consequence. It must be. His greatest headaches in facing Timmy in the past had been from his godparents; combined, Wanda and Cosmo's power far outclassed Juandissimo on his own, no matter how much more often his Latino fairy got things granted right. Something about those two when paired with Beaver Boy granted them both a great deal of magical power in some incomprehensible form. But here was Timothy, another godchild and highly undeserving of being one, with Wanda alone and Cosmo having been already offed as punishment for Timmy's death. That power was gone forever, and with only half the magic she once had, the widow would be easy to overwhelm in a wishing duel.

Of course, that was assuming a wish duel could even take place. If Da Rules also state that this Neogene dog was unaffected by the magic of any fairy, why would he bother to enlist the aid of one, knowing he was immune to her skills and any beneficial magic she had? It seemed idiotic, it should have been idiotic and fail to work, yet it **had** worked. It was almost as if the pair was blessed with the oblivious dumb luck that had surrounded the green-haired fairy. Oh, wonderful. But at least it was just one half of the pair. He could handle that. If he'd had to have met with the both of them that day, Wanda **and** Cosmo together, it would have been very much akin to having Timmy Turner reach out from the Great Beyond, grab him by the gonads and give them a good twisting.

He'd laugh while he was doing it, too, fucking martyr.

Juandissimo sat in a corner of the study in his peacock form, head tucked under one wing as he slept. Remy wondered for a moment if he'd known all along that Timothy had possessed the pink widow in his arsenal of tricks, then shrugged it off. It didn't matter. The Spires were still working furiously to calculate the perfect method to create the all-encompassing nullification field that he dreamed of putting over the town. Only two had been torn down in all the months they stood over Dimmsdale and the city's population was far too bogged down in their own sense of eternal grief and lack of caring for anything beyond the tending of their beloved grave to even bother to see that their skyline had been drastically altered by the black needles of anti-magic. And as Crocker had said, the interiors of the Spires had already been modified with traps and ambush units to prevent additional attacks like the ones that destroyed Spires Seven and Six. If the mongrel couldn't reach the support points of the tower to blow them away, there was nothing he could do to the tower. His magic, fancy and pretty as it was, was nowhere near powerful enough to take down a whole Spire. By himself. From the outside. And a good distance away. Impossible.

Remy flicked open the phone and studied it leisurely. Phone book option. He clicked on it and began scrolling. A.J., Caleb, Dad, Elmer, most of the entries he recognized, though the entry for 'C' gave him a bit of pause. Curious, he keyed the number and lifted it to his ear, listening to the rings.

_"Hello. This is Caleb, scholar for the Archives of the Twin Blades, an institution backed by the Hounder Organization for the further education and archival of the world. I'm not available at this moment, but if you leave a name and number, I'll get to you as soon as I can. Thank you and please visit one of our many fine museums one day!"_

He sounded so obnoxiously chipper, this one. But he worked for the Hounder Organization, which made him untouchable unless a wish was involved and no one could trace it to him. After all, who really cared about scholars these days? Though, it was a bit of wishing that got him Chester to begin with and Hounder's flunkies managed to chase it back to him and give him hell for it. Perhaps, for now, this Caleb bloke was hands off.

Remy continued scrolling down the list, pausing when the cursor moved over Timothy's name. He gripped the phone tightly, trying very hard not to immediately chuck it into the fireplace. Those words came back to mind, clearly remembered despite the fact that he'd been brimming over with so much rage he could barely think straight. _"You mess with anyone under the protection of the Hounder Organization and you get screwed over fast."_ Wretched, _wretched_ mongrel.

Oh, bother. Gripping the phone like that keyed in the auto-dial feature. Bloody cell.

_"Hello?"_ He actually answered? Remy lifted an eyebrow, looking down at the phone in his hands. Speaker function. That explains it. _"Hello? Anyone there?"_ He sounded tired, probably caught him in bed or something. Remy grinned and settled back in the plush seat. If he kept the bugger awake for a good chunk of the night, what were the chances he'd screw himself over in class the next day? _"Ugh, it's two in the morning. If you're not gonna answer, I'm hanging up. I've got school."_ There was a pause, and then the dial tone as the brunet made good on his promise. He allowed himself a moment of chuckling, then swallowed the rest down and keyed the re-dial, waiting.

_"Hello?"_ This was so much fun! Childish and idiotic, but fun! Why hadn't he thought of this sooner? _"Look, I don't know what your deal is, but I had a really rough night. I want my sleep. Don't call back again."_ Another dial tone as the line was dropped and Remy burst out laughing, startling Juandissimo awake.

"What is so amusing that you had to wake me from my sexy sleep?" the fairy grumbled.

"I'm prank-calling Timothy Neogene!" Remy snickered and doubled over in laughter, holding out the phone, "It's... hilarious!" The peacock looked unimpressed for a moment, then lit up with realization.

"Can you, by chance, get Wanda on that phone? I have a few things I'd like to _discuss_ with her, if possible." he crooned and the blonde held the phone away as though it were a favored toy he had no intention of sharing.

"No! I'm enjoying myself and the very idea of you trying to coerce that little pink wretch into joining you for phone sex is utterly vile!" he snapped, "Make yourself useful and get me some hot chocolate that I wish to have!" The fairy snorted but lifted the wand to grant the wish. Remy plucked the mug from the air, sipped at the drink, then hit re-dial once again.

_"Okay, look. I've checked the history on this thing and it's saying that the number dialing me is Chester's. I know for a fact that Chester's number changed and I don't have it yet. So that means only one thing."_ Timothy hissed through the phone, _"Remy, you little rat, quit calling me or you're seriously gonna see what new tricks I've been learning for the past week. I told you before, you're lucky you only have to deal with me, but that luck's gonna run out once I get stronger. Count your towers with both hands while you can, 'cause I'm taking back this city and there's nothing you can do about it."_ The dial tone took back over and Remy ignored the threat, clicking the button a fourth time.

_"I'm sorry. The number you have dialed cannot be reached at this time. Please check the number and dial again later."_ the operator's recorded voice seemed cheerful. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. He took another sip of hot chocolate and relaxed in the chair, clutching the phone as though it was some precious little memento. Perhaps he should add it to the box with the others, like that delightful little switch that made life so sweet for four years.


	12. Chapter 12

12

"He's being destructive." Genis remarked flatly, watching Timmy in the training room from observation. The speaker phone was active beside him, Caleb had left the Ivory Tower for replacement of his wings and to relay information back and forth to A.J. in regards to the new design of the magitech suits. As such, Genis was sent back to the Tower to act as management. And at seven in the morning, when most teens would want to stay in bed just a little longer but dragged themselves out for school anyway, chanting their mantra of 'just four more years', there was Timmy Turner in the training room, hurling every Element imaginable at the poor defenseless target droids in some unexplainable rage.

_"As long as it's helping him improve his magic skills, let him wreck whatever he wants. It's not like we can't afford replacements for everything but the humans."_ Caleb replied over the phone, _"See if you can get him to work on his conjuring skills. If he could create a cookie simply from mana he pulled from around and within himself, and the memories of a cookie's components, then perhaps I've found a new source of energy."_

"It would be difficult. You did say he made that promise not to conjure items."

_"Have him bend it, if need be. As long as his little fairies aren't around to actually **see** him do it, then no promise is broken."_

"I see. All right." Genis clicked the phone off and resumed watching the teen down below. Multiple spears from the _Flagrare Lancea_ shot down from above, skewering several droids and exploding into a chaotic storm of fire and metal that bounced harmlessly off of the mana shield Timmy tossed up almost negligently, the crystal shard floating before him as he stood simmering in contained fury, arms folded over his chest.

"Can we make this more **challenging**, Genis?! I asked for a workout, not playtime!" he shot up at the half-elf.

"I don't think that's such a good idea. You're barely thinking clearly as it is, Sweetie." Wanda pointed out worriedly as she floated by the brunet, "It's one thing to practice your spells, and something else to just use mana to lash out for no reason!" Cosmo hovered by her, grinning as he looked at the falling shower of burning debris through 3D glasses, a bucket of popcorn floating within his reach.

"But it makes for great fireworks! Whoo-hoo! Do it again, Timmy! Again! Again! Again!" he cheered and clapped his hands excitedly. Wanda shot him a glare, poking at him to quiet him down as the brunet lowered the shield and held out a hand towards the pile of rubble.

_"Ofer Hoetu."_ he murmured and the pieces of metal suddenly began liquefying, spreading over the floor in a pool of steel. Timmy stared down at the puddle blankly, then sighed and left the room, whistling for his fairies to follow. "I'll come back during lunch. Maybe they'll have something better by then." he remarked dully.

Genis sighed as the puddle spread further over the floor, then punched in the code for cleanup. It would take a miracle to get melted steel off the tile before it decided to adhere to it permanently. Whatever had made the young immortal angry, it was not going to be leaving his shoulders anytime soon.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tootie watched the brunet leave the Tower and sighed, shaking her head. It wasn't working out too well for him, she could see that. He insisted on doing everything himself, and didn't even stop to think that the Others could actually help him. After all wasn't it the group of boys that pulled him from the nullifier hall to save him? She looked back at the group of S-List teens.

"What do we do now, guys? He doesn't want us to go near the Spires, but he can't take those things out all by himself." she remarked and looked up at Romi, "I wish I had an excuse slip from school so I can stay here." Romi blinked, then lifted her wand to grant the wish. Chester, A.J., Sanjay, Elmer, and Trixie all watched her, then looked at each other worriedly.

"She's right. Timothy can't handle taking out the Dark Spires without a team. Just one nullifier takes him out of a fight; we all saw what happened to him at school when Remy stole the switch." the blonde agreed and scratched his head, "But how can we be of any real help? We don't have magic to fight with."

"Maybe we don't need magic. It's just helping. If we could find a way to use what we already have and know to help Timothy, maybe that would be enough." A.J. pointed out thoughtfully. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm working with Caleb on getting those magitech suits done. Once we have them and wear them, we'll have some great defense against physical attacks."

"Yeah, but it doesn't work against fairy magic. I was wearing the prototype and Remy just kept turning me into stuff." Trixie sighed and flicked her hair back, "Apollo, I wish I had the day off from school too." Her fairy unsheathed the wand, waved it to grant the wish, then slid it back into place. "If you can find a way to fix that, then that would be great. Meantime, I'm going to try to find out what's going on with that stupid Spire and its booby traps." She got up to leave the group.

"Hey, wait! What are you talking about? How are you gonna do that? Remy's not gonna talk to you anymore now that he figures you're on our side." Chester called out in confusion. The Popular paused and looked back at him, surprised.

"Oh, you don't know? Remy always gets information about changes to the Spires from Mr. Crocker. If I can use the things Mr. Foley taught me about hacking and stuff, I can sneak into Remy's computer and steal the new data." she replied and held her hand up to Apollo as the redhead fluttered by her shoulder, "Fight fairy magic with fairy magic, right? Now that I know about some of those tricks, I can use them when I wish myself into the Internet." A.J. gawked at her in shock.

"You can go **inside** the Internet?!" he exclaimed and the raven-haired Asian nodded. Sanjay and Elmer hopped up from their seats from around the lounge of the Ivory Tower.

"That sounds fascinating, if not somewhat unsettling. Come! We go to school now! We have to stay close to Timothy so Remy does not attack him while he is in this very bad mood!" the dark-skinned boy declared and adjusted his glasses before grabbing Elmer by the arm and dragging him off. "Chester, come! A.J. has been excused by Hounder for the sake of finishing those body-suits!"

"Um, okay." Chester murmured, watching Trixie head off for the computer room, "Hey, Tricks! Take care in there!" The girl paused and stared back at him in confusion.

"What did you say?" she asked, puzzled, but by then he'd already run out the lounge with Sanjay and Elmer. She blinked and turned to the other teens. "What was that all about?" the Asian questioned. A.J. shrugged, pulling up his laptop and lifting the screen to study the eternal scenario simulation program.

"It's a nickname, duh." Tootie told the girl at last, rolling her eyes, "Geez, you can be dumb. Chester gives out nicknames when he finds a new friend. Why do you think he calls me Toots?" Trixie scowled and planted her fists on her hips.

"Don't call me dumb! What are **you** gonna do the whole day, Miss Goth Geek?" she snapped. Tootie sniffed and tossed her head, her pigtails swishing about with the movement.

"I'm gonna spend it with Sam and pick up some more moves with daggers. She knows how to take a fight to the bad guys and I'm gonna do the same to protect Timothy!" she declared and looked up at Romi, "I wish I was at Sam's house in Amity Park!" The two vanished in a puff of blue smoke and Trixie stomped her foot in frustration.

"Bratty little baby! Timothy likes **me**!" she yelled and stomped away, "And once I find out how to get past those booby traps in the Spire, he'll like me even more!"

"I need to invest in some headphones." A.J. sighed with a shake of his head, "Darn, still not the right scenario."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Internet was a huge place. So vast there was literally no end in sight and so filled with different pieces of data flying here and there that it could be overwhelming if one didn't keep a focus on what they were after. Pipes and tunnels, giant envelopes and images, ribbons of video and data; this was the world of the Internet as seen by someone within its limitless boundaries.

Trixie flew along the paths determinedly, the lower half of her body transformed into a violet tail of crackling energy as she zoomed down pipes and tubes. Wishing herself into the network was easy, but navigating it... that was a hassle. She had an idea of where to go, but with so much junk all around, zipping here and there, it was tough to find the exact trails she needed to follow.

Apollo sat at the keyboard, watching the screen with the intensity of an FBI agent, a mug of coffee set before him with a straw placed inside. He hadn't liked the wish at all, mostly because it meant that he'd be stuck on this side of the computer realm and powerless to help his godchild as she raced through the phone and cable lines. But this was to help bring down the towers and Trixie was confident in her growing skills as the team's espionage and intelligence gathering member. Who was he to say 'no' to the idea of her being able to help out Timmy and make up for not having really done so as a child?

"Ultimately, I blame Fairy World." he muttered at last and sipped at his coffee, waiting for a sign from his godchild.

Online, Trixie continued tracing the various paths and tunnels in her search for Remy's computer. There had to be a way to it and a way in; it was the only shot they had at getting any new information about the Dark Spires. Hair flying back in an ebony cape, arms held out as she flew, she pushed onwards. At her side was a bag filled with small discs, each one a link to various computer programs in her laptop designed to help her break through electronic defenses and firewalls. Gifts from the techno-geek in Team Phantom all the way in Amity Park.

"Come on! There's gotta be something around here that can lead me to Remy's computer!" she sighed harshly and flew over packets of e-mail that shot to and fro in the tunnels in their mad dash to be delivered. She coasted down, pulled one of the discs from her bag and held it over the packets. The disc glowed and displayed a small screen of information before her, allowing her the ability to read what was in the mail. Junk, junk, junk. Spam mail, ugh. She slid the disc away and moved on.

When the walls of the tunnel she flew through began to darken and flicker with strange lights, Trixie slowed down and looked around herself warily. If ever was the time to use one of those stealth programs, this was it. She dug out a second disc and held it over her head. It spun and glowed, showering her in a soft light that wrapped around her body. She held up her hands and smiled.

"Cool. So this will make me invisible to the protective programs, huh?" she remarked and cruised on cautiously, keeping herself alert for anything that might not be fooled by the little program. Tucker Foley's simulation had warned her against being overconfident once she had a successful break-in.

It was working anyway, as none of the free-floating little gizmos representing various firewalls and defensive programs registered the fact that she was there. She still had to pull a few tricks from her bag to sneak through some of the tougher barriers. The Asian smiled at that.

"Tricks, huh? Cute nickname." she murmured and touched a hand to her cheeks in mild embarrassment. It was kind of sweet, getting a nickname as proof that she was officially one of the group. With a slight giggle, Trixie flew on, past several more firewalls, then stopping with a sudden gasp as she emerged in a computer that faced an elaborately decorated room. Was this Remy's computer? She looked around, then jumped for one of the folders sitting on the desktop.

"Okay, let's see what's in here...." she muttered and pulled the folder open. Windows of information popped open on the screen and she nearly fell into the folder herself. Quickly righting herself, Trixie looked back at the windows, leaped to one and clung onto its edge as she studied the data. "Hmm. This is...." she began and uttered a small cry of shock and recognition, "This is stuff about Timmy Turner!"

Notes, clippings from newspapers, photos of the small boy, even a copy of the obituary, there were all there for her to see. For someone who really hated the kid, Remy sure had a lot of information about him. Trixie hopped from window to window, stopping at one that had a strange sketch displayed in an image. It looked like a child's drawing, maybe something Timmy had doodled out one day? Trixie tilted her head in confusion, then moved on to the obituary, a mournful look on her face. It had been a sad day when it ran in the newspapers of Dimmsdale. No one in the city wanted to confirm that Timmy was really gone, and having that there was undeniable proof that the Heart of Dimmsdale beat no more. In contrast to the funeral, his obituary was small and brief, as though people believed that if it was easy to overlook, then it would be easy to forget and the pain wouldn't come back. It hadn't worked.

Trixie sniffed tearfully, reaching out to touch fingers to the color portrait of the pink-hatted boy. She had saved a clipping of it herself, and the day the newspaper ran it every store in the city had sold out of tissues. Who could forget it? August 20th was declared a Weep Day because of that article.

The Asian paused in her sad reminiscing, blinking in confusion. That date... it sounded familiar. Hadn't that been in the files that Remy had on Timothy? She pulled a disc from her bag and tossed it into the folder the data on Timmy had come from. In a flash all of the windows closed back up and the disc spun, sending the data back to her laptop in the Ivory Tower. With that working, Trixie jumped at the folder containing the information on Timothy Neogene, opening it up and dumping out the files that had been discovered.

"I knew that date felt important!" she exclaimed haughtily, "It's the same day all of Timothy's files were put into the online databases!" She paused and tilted her head in confusion. Okay, so why did that seem weird? It could be just coincidence, right? On the other hand, there did seem to be some kind of connection between Timmy Turner and Timothy Neogene; why else would Timothy come running to Dimmsdale to save it from anti-magic junk? Timmy might have told him to do it, but why wait so long to do anything? The Dark Spires had been up for a little over three years; he should have shown up the first month they were activated!

Still, it seemed a little funny that on the same day Timmy's obituary ran in the papers, Timothy's records went online.

"Freaky." Trixie finally remarked and tossed another disc into that folder for downloading. Maybe there was recently added information that she didn't have yet. With that and the files on Timmy being sent to Apollo on her own laptop, she made the leap from the top of the desktop all the way to another folder near the bottom, passing by the Recycle Bin on her way. She grunted softly as she landed, then checked the folder's name. Spire Reports; yup, this was the one she wanted. Trixie dropped the third disc into it and breathed a sigh of relief. Well, that should do it....

An alarm went off as the disc began to glow and Trixie jumped away from the folder in surprise. That didn't sound good. Had she been detected?

_"Warning! Warning! Home Network invasion detected! Releasing anti-hacker software units!"_ a monotonous disembodied voice declared and Trixie twisted around to watch a group of shark-like digital creatures come swarming out of nowhere to chase after her. With a cry of shock, she jumped at the Internet connection symbol, vanishing into it as the swarm of creatures dove in after her.

"I guess I should have paid more attention to those lessons!" she exclaimed in a panic as she zoomed down the various tunnels and pipes. She couldn't lead those things back to her laptop; she'd be traced and Remy would find out exactly who it was that snuck into his computer once again! Digging through her bag, Trixie wrapped her fingers around yet another of the software discs and pulled it free. "Oh, what's this one?!" she murmured, checking the label quickly. A decoy virus, maybe it would do the trick? She tossed it over her shoulder and it exploded into a flurry of black shadows that zipped all over the place. They created a mask of activity that slowed down the sharks, but didn't stop all of them. A few made it past the decoys and continued tailing her. How was Apollo doing?

Not very well. As soon as the laptop registered the alert, the fairy spat out a mouthful of coffee and shrieked in a panic, hands flying up to his head. This wasn't supposed to happen! What about all of those programs and stuff that were supposed to protect Trixie while she was online?!

"I hate the Internet!" he yelled and began tapping at the keys, searching for a way to make contact with the girl and pull her back to safety. "Oh, come on! Something here has to work! Stupid technology!" he griped to himself.

Dodging and out-flying the cyber-sharks was taking its toll on Trixie. She'd thrown back several other small programs meant to throw them off her tracks, whittling down the number of tracers and anti-hack programs tailing her. All that remained was one exceptionally stubborn shark and there were no discs left in her bag.

"Oh, how am I gonna get out of this one?!" she cried aloud and soared up to a package of e-mails, burying herself among the large, flat envelopes. The shark followed after her, snapping its jaws into the pack in attempts to grab onto her. Trixie screamed fearfully, maneuvering her tail about to avoid the sharp teeth tearing through mail to reach her. "Apollo! Help!" she yelled, "I wish I was out of here!" She shut her eyes, opened them again, then shrieked again as the shark only wriggled further to get in after her. No good! Apollo can't hear her wish from inside the Internet; she was stuck!

"All right! Let's try e-mailing her!" the fairy at the keyboard declared and clicked on the Send button after typing his godchild's name into the recipient field. Would it work? Would it find her in that vast world and bring her back to safety before something happened to her? Apollo held out his wand and planted it before himself, bowing his head as he knelt. "Please, please, be safe, Trixie! Come back safely and in one piece!" he prayed fervently, "All the magic I possess can't stop Death once he's been summoned and I'm not strong enough to defy Da Rules like Cosmo and Wanda! Trixie! Use your own strength!"

The Asian wriggled back further and further from the jaws of the cyber-shark, eventually making her way out of the pack of e-mails. Her tail returned to legs once she stood on the stack and she crouched defensively, watching with horror as the shark burrowed its way through the mail. It towered over her ominously, maw open and gaping as it readied for the final lunge. The raven-haired girl lifted her fists and took a battle stance, swallowing hard as she made an attempt to look like she was going to go down fighting. Just as she thought it was going to all end, Trixie spotted a large envelope head straight for her, a golden star shining on it as a virtual stamp. Her eyes lit up with hope. Apollo! He'd sent something for her to use as an escape!

"My ride's here!" she declared, turning a grin on the shark as her confidence was renewed, "But I should be a proper guest of your home and leave a parting gift. So here it is, courtesy of the training my relatives gave me!" Trixie pulled the headband from her hair, wrapped it around one hand, then tightened it into a fist and shot upwards, slamming the full force of her weight into the uppercut that sent the cyber-shark spinning away from her. Dropping onto the star-stamped e-mail, she shook her hand with a wince. "Ow.... Looks like I shouldn't have let off on my karate practice so often. Grandpa's not gonna be happy." she muttered and shrugged, "Oh well. This is as good a reason as any to start brushing up on my old regimen, especially if I'm gonna be helping Timothy." She gasped. "That's right! I'm helping Timothy! The data! I have to see if it downloaded!" the raven-haired girl cried and quickly bent to hit the Return to Sender feature on her e-mail. With a whoop of victory, she held on to the envelope as it shot off towards her laptop.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A.J. stared up at the wall-sized screen, baffled. Thousands of scenarios, thousands of variables, millions of choices and tweaks and changes... exact same result.

Timmy Turner should never have died from a broken neck falling from the top of the jungle gym.

And yet he had. Despite all technical reasoning, despite all scientific explanation, defying logic and physics and the rules of nature and order, he fell, broke his neck and died. It was an impossibility that had come to pass. How? How?!

Ever since the funeral four years ago, Chester had been adamant that Timmy could not have died like that. It just seemed wrong. A.J. and the Others had agreed; grief did that to a person, he guessed. So he wrote the scenario building program, the simulator, input the conditions that existed the day Timmy died and let the model run. And as everyone gathered around his laptop screen to watch what five months of coding through tearfully determined nights had gone to perfecting, the simulation ran for the first time, testing all of the conditions to recreate the events.

And Timmy had landed safely on the grass on his own two feet, safe, secure... alive.

So something had happened, something no one else had seen or taken into account. Something took place that forced Timmy to die. And the Others spent four years trying to uncover it. The laptop was dedicated to searching for the answer, running the program nonstop with random variables added in to check and check and test and test. Every day, the group looked over the results with hope, and every day their spirits fell as each test told them the same thing. This could not have happened; this **should** not have happened. Timmy was supposed to live, not die.

The Heart of Dimmsdale should never have been put in that tiny grave in Dimmsdale Cemetery!

And yet there was nothing to say what _really_ happened. It was the biggest, most heartbreaking mystery the Others ever faced.

"C'mon, Timmy. Where's that magic luck you had so long ago? What happened to you? Can't you give us a clue? Can't you send us a sign?" A.J. whispered, watching the computer continue its quest for the elusive cause to the boy's death. The door behind him slid open and Trixie rushed in, clutching her laptop and torn hairband in hands, Apollo fluttering wildly by her. He spun around in surprise, blinking at her disheveled state. "Trixie?! What the heck happened to **you**?!"

"I got... the... data!" she gasped and plunked her computer down on the table, "I had some trouble with anti-hacker programs, but I shook 'em off before they could trace me. Check this out!" The Asian flipped open her laptop and started tapping at the keys. Apollo held his mug of half-spilled coffee in both hands, shaking and twitching.

"Switching to decaf. Definitely switching to decaf. Never drinking this stuff black ever again!" he chattered nervously and fluttered away to find a place to rest and recover from the whole disturbing ordeal. A.J. ignored the jittery fairy in favor of the promise of data on the Dark Spires. From a technical view, he was impressed with the designs; from the emotional, he was distressed over the failing plans of attack and hoped good news was in store for them. With the files open before him, he read through the blueprints and reports, putting his mind to work on understanding the new data.

"So, is there anything in there that can help us?" Trixie asked hopefully.

"Give me some time with this. It'll be a while before I can find something useful. In the meantime, keep an eye on that." A.J. replied, pointing up at the screen on the wall, eyes still on the open windows in the laptop. Trixie blinked at him, then followed his arm to look up at the giant monitor. She tilted her head in confusion.

"What is that?" she asked inanely.

"It's a simulation program. It's been running for about four years now and hasn't found the correct conditions that would support how Timmy died." the super-genius replied, pulling up a chair and tapping at the laptop, "Just keep an eye on it and let me know if it finally figures it out." Trixie sighed and plopped into a chair of her own, one arm propped up to provide a resting place for her cheek. Silence, save for Apollo's random yelps about various objects in his caffeine high, ruled over the lab for several minutes.

"A.J.?" Trixie finally murmured.

"What now?" the younger teen muttered back.

"Remember Weep Day? Back when it first started?"

"August 20th, 2002, a day that will live in infamy for Dimmsdale, second worst in comparison to the day Timmy died. What about it?"

"It's the date that all of Timothy's records were entered into online databases. Before that, there was no sign that he ever existed." Trixie mused aloud, "Don't you think that's kind of weird?"

"No. Aren't all rich people kinda spazzy about hiding the truth about themselves?" A.J. replied in disinterest. Trixie jerked her head up, startled and hoping he wasn't referring to her secret tomboyish nature. Nobody knew about that part of her; nobody except Apollo and Timantha, a girl she regarded as her new best friend but had disappeared without a trace soon after they first met.

"Uh, I meant that it's kind of weird that the day Timmy's obituary was printed, Timothy's records were uploaded to the 'Net!" she stammered and her eyebrows came together in a delicate furrow, "Didn't Remy once say that he had investigated into Timothy's past and discovered that he didn't exist until about four years ago?"

"Probably a coincidence. Are you watching the program?"

"Yeah, yeah. But should we ask him about it?"

"Ask a kid who can generate a bomb in his hands faster than we can jump out a window if he'll tell us the secrets he's hiding? Um, I'd like to hit puberty, thanks."

"I could ask him. He's got a crush on me, y'know." Trixie pointed out with a smug smile.

"And you think that because...?"

"Everyone else does; why not him?"

A.J. finally turned from his laptop and leaned against the table, folding his arms over his chest and giving her the full brunt of his impassive glare. Trixie blinked at him, perplexed.

"How does it feel, Trixie, to be in Timmy's shoes now?" the super-genius asked, "To have a crush on someone and think they like you and never accept the fact that they're not interested in you at all?" The Asian took on a shocked and horrified expression, eyes wide with disbelief. "He _tolerates_ you, Trixie; that doesn't mean Timothy likes you. He tolerates all of us because we know who he is, what he is, and we have the potential to be of help, or need to be protected from Remy." he went on and shrugged, "I've thought it over since last night. If Timothy really wanted to, he could just use his powers to kill us all and be free of us. He just chooses not to for some strange reason he won't reveal. Think about it; he's immortal, an un-killable creature, and he's advancing his skills in magical alchemy so fast, it's scary. Backing him up are two fairy godparents, both of which possess battle-specific wands and are deadly serious in protecting and serving him." He lifted a finger and twirled it absently. "If he put his mind to it, he could single-handedly destroy the world... and no one would be able stop him." he summed up, "So rather than annoy Timothy, let's just do our best to help him save the world, and be thankful he's a Hero and not a bad guy."

"Um, sure." Trixie squeaked in response and turned back to staring up at the screen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Amity Park~

Tootie dropped off at Sam's house and brushed aside her hair, letting Romi poof into her earring guise before ringing the doorbell. The older Mansons answered the door, gave her a wary look, then called out to their daughter that another of her 'troubled' friends had arrived.

"My friends are perfectly **normal**! Stop harassing Danny! He's having trouble with Remedial Math and he doesn't need you stressing him out!" Sam yelled in exasperation as she tromped down the stairs. Tootie blinked, shook her head and waved at her, calling out a 'Hello!' into the house. "Tootie?! How'd you get from Dimmsdale to here so fast?" the older Goth exclaimed in surprise.

"Ummm...." Tootie began hesitantly. Sam hurried out the door and shut it behind her, rushing both of them away and onto the sidewalk.

"Okay, we're safe. Lemme guess, fairy magic, right? Handy little guys, aren't they?" the older Goth remarked with a knowing grin and folded her arms over her chest, "So, what brings you to this part of the nation?" Tootie rubbed her head and smiled sheepishly.

"I need some advice. About a guy." she began and Sam held out a hand.

"Ep, ep, ep, ep, ep! All I need to know!" the older Goth declared, silencing her young apprentice. "I know what your problem is. You're suffering from the 'Clueless, Young, Hot Hero Doesn't See You Standing There' syndrome." She reached down, tousled Tootie's hair slightly and sighed. "Walk with me, Future Member of the Anti-Establishmentarianism Movement. There is much for you to learn." she added.

They headed down the sidewalk, winding their way slowly past the park as they talked. Cars passed them by in their routine traffic, people commuting to and from work or errands. High above them the sky was clear and beautiful, a streak of black shooting by in similar routine. Tootie looked up at it, blinked, then looked over at her mentor.

"Oh, relax. He's just patrolling. Danny Phantom gets bored with just hanging out at random places so he goes on patrols every five-ten minutes." Sam dismissed the ghost overhead, "You get used to it." She smiled slightly, a softly bemused expression on her face as she gazed at the sidewalk. "So you have a crush on Timmy and he's not giving you the time of day. Does he know you like him?" she asked.

"Yeah. I told him every chance I got when we were little. I think it scared him. Maybe I was too pushy?" Tootie remarked worriedly, "Did I blow it? He still has a thing for Trixie."

"And in comes the 'Paulina' of the mess." Sam griped dryly, "All right. Let me get this straight. You have a crush on Timmy, but unlike me, you told him you had feelings for the guy. This scared the holy hell out of Mr. Clueless. He's got a thing for the Popular Chick, and always had. Little Miss Shallow had no clue Timmy Turner existed, but now she's all over for jumping this new side of Timmy, the blind Hero side. Only, there's no more Timmy Turner to interfere so she thinks the Hero's always gonna be there for her." She rolled her eyes in thought. "Is that about it?"

"Yeah. That's it." Tootie replied in the same dry tone. They turned down the street towards the Nasty Burger. "I mean, it's harder now. He's become a Popular; something he could never be when he was ten-year-old Timmy Turner. He's got money and cool clothes...."

"He looks Goth." Sam remarked thoughtfully, tapping her cheek, "It doesn't look half bad on him. Tucker makes a weird-looking Goth, and Danny never quite caught on to it. Looks good in a black shirt, though." She grinned. "Looks better without it."

"I told Timmy that and he insists he's not Goth!" the younger girl declared in exasperation, "I can't figure out how to get through his thick head! Arrgh! It makes me so frustrated sometimes!" She looked up at the older Goth helplessly. "What am I gonna do? I really, really like him, but all he does is yell about how I'm only twelve. Does age really matter?"

"According to federal law, yeah, it does." Sam replied with a sigh and looked up at the restaurant, "Hey, Tootie, here's a question. You might think it's kinda weird, but just go with me." Tootie blinked and tilted her head in confusion.

"Okay. Shoot." the young Goth answered. Sam took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and kept her gaze on the Nasty Burger.

"How much faith do you have in Timmy?" she asked, "Faith that he will continue to choose to do the right thing?" Tootie took on a puzzled look, crinkling her nose.

"Huh? That's kinda dumb; Timmy's the Heart of Dimmsdale. He's the purest, most wholesome kid in the world!" she exclaimed and Sam gave a short laugh.

"Ah, love blinds the smartest people." she murmured, "He's fourteen, Tootie; he's gonna be given temptations to turn his back on doing the right thing. He's gonna see how much easier it is to do wrong, to use his powers for darker purposes." She lifted her hand and bit into her knuckle, fighting back a sudden surge of tears. "This place... it was almost the beginning of the end of the world." she finally said, pulling her hand down, "That's what love can do... and temptations that couldn't be resisted." Tootie still looked confused and the older Goth sighed. "Little story. I'll tell you, but don't tell anyone I told you. Especially Danny."

"Fenton or Phantom? Isn't it confusing to know two guys who have the same first name?" Tootie asked.

"I know them both really well. I never get confused." Sam replied, "And both; Danny and Phantom both went through it and they absolutely hated the whole thing. Really traumatizing." She went on to tell a carefully reworded version of the time reality was split asunder and Team Phantom came face to face with the pure evil that was known as Dark Danny Phantom. Tootie went pale and stared up at the girl with mortified eyes at the end of the story. "So, how much faith do you have? How far are you willing to go to support him with all your love, knowing he has the potential to be destructive? To ruin everything because he fell to darkness?"

"I never thought of it like that." the young girl murmured, "I had heard rumors, long ago, of the day Timmy went to school and threw Mr. Crocker out of the room. Chester had said that it was incredibly weird and kind of scary to see how he acted the rest of the day. Timmy? Destroying stuff? At the age of _ten_?!"

"Probably a wish gone bad." Sam muttered and jumped as Tootie jerked her head up, a strange expression twisting her features.

"Heeeyyyy! All that you said earlier about loving the Hero and all... you were talking about Danny Phantom!" she declared and shot a glare up at her mentor, "Aren't you supposed to be Danny _Fenton_'s girlfriend?!" Sam growled in exasperation, pulling her hand over her face.

"That was **before** I decided to be with Danny Fenton!" she finally exclaimed, "Just listen to the message! Can you take being the one to keep him on the path of heroism? Can you handle watching him go into a fight to save the day and wonder if he'll come back okay? Can you handle the pain and the torture and the knowledge that you could be his greatest strength and, at the same time, his greatest weakness?"

Tootie hung her head, her fingers pressing together slowly. It took some time, but she finally lifted her shoulders, then let them drop in a single shrug. She didn't know. How **could** she know? If that horrible darkness could take over Timmy and threaten everything in the world, how could she trust herself to stand up to him and bring him back from that darkness? She didn't have the confidence to do that; she'd be too scared. Yeah, she had her crush; yeah, she dreamed of one day being Mrs. Timmy Turner, but in reality?

Reality told her Timmy Turner was dead; the boy in the pink hat that visited his own grave could turn around and kill her and probably not bat an eye, if it really came down to it. That wasn't Timmy Turner; that was Timothy Neogene, The One Who Stood Beyond Death's Reach and was untouchable by anything nature and life dished out. She sighed in defeat.

"Should I give up?" she finally whispered and blinked tearfully as Sam gently lifted her face up. The older Goth had a strangely tender smile.

"No. You don't give up. If you really love this guy, get stronger. Become someone who can stand on equal ground with him. Become a pillar of strength that he can see and learn to appreciate." she told her young pupil, "When you have the confidence to accept the knowledge you could lose him to a force he's facing down for you, then you will be strong enough to face it with him and ensure he comes back to you." She smiled wider, her violet eyes shining with unshed tears. "And when you're strong enough to face him in his darkest moment, to give your life completely to fate and destiny and accept him for what he is and what he could do and protect what he wants to protect even as the world falls around you, then he'll see and know and understand. And you'll have his heart forever. That is a love that will **never** die."

"Stand on equal ground. Become stronger. Be a pillar of strength and confidence. Learn to live on without him so that I can stand beside him. Learn to face him, so he can see who I really am. Show him I'm his true strength, and he'll be mine as much as I am his." Tootie echoed softly, eyes wide with growing understanding, "I think... I get it...." Sam straightened and grinned, resting one fist on her hip.

"That's about all the advice I can offer, girlfriend." she replied and closed her eyes, tilting her chin up for a moment. She resumed looking down at the younger girl after a brief silence. "Let's grab a couple of tofu burgers and find a good spot outside. Danny Phantom's promising us an ectoplasm light show." she added with a wink, "He wants to show off for us gorgeous girls."

"How do you know?" Tootie asked as the two Goths entered the Nasty Burger.

"I've got spiritual powers thanks to this rock on my choker. I can communicate with spirits and it's super-handy when I need to call Danny. 'Specially if I'm late for class at the college." her mentor laughed, "That's how he makes money on the side; 'Phantom Taxi: Defying the Laws of Physics and Traffic Lights to Get You Where You Need to Go!'"


	13. Chapter 13

13

Lunch at Oberon. It had been a while since Timmy did something like that. He hadn't thought to bring a lunch to the school, mostly because he hadn't thought to stay there. But with Remy acting hoity-toity and prancing about the place in expensive new suits, looking unusually gleeful, he couldn't take the chance that there was something seriously wrong he could prevent there and just take off for the Ivory Tower without doing something about it. So he picked out a spot under a tree near the Others' bench, now taken over by members of the Chess Club, wished for a sandwich and began to watch the campus.

His mood remained unchanged since that morning; sullen, depressed, stressed. Timmy half-wished, silently of course, that he could just find something to take it out on. Preferably Remy, but killing a kid just for being annoying wasn't in him. Least... not yet.

"Cheer up, Sport! It could be worse, you know." Wanda remarked with forced brightness, sitting on the grass beside him. Cosmo had given the campus a cursory look over, sniffed almost disdainfully, then flopped belly first onto the grass and promptly fell asleep. The pink fairy-turned-squirrel shot her husband a disapproving glare, then smiled up at her godchild. "You still have your health!" she tried.

"That doesn't mean anything to me. I could have a terminal brain tumor. What's it gonna do?" Timmy grumbled, giving his fairy godmother a semi-wrathful look, "_Kill_ me? Good luck killing something already dead. Health.... Give me a break."

"You still have your friends!"

"Who _can_ die. Who don't know who I am. Who keep clinging to the idea that finding another reason why their little friend 'Timmy Turner' died is gonna **do** anything. I was better off without them. They just keep complicating things."

"What about Tootie?"

"Even worse. She knows who and what I am, but she still doesn't get the idea that I'm **not** exactly who I was. She insists I tell everyone about me and doesn't understand that it's too dangerous. I can't just blurt out that I'm back." Timmy sighed and leaned back against the trunk of the large oak, looking over the grassy field once more. "I _can't_ come back. Not all the way. Cousin Danny was right; the Timmy Turner Dimmsdale knew, that **I** knew, is gone. And no amount of wishing can change it." He blinked as Wanda leaped up onto his shirt, arms and legs folded under her body as her tail curled around herself. She blinked up at him sadly.

"That's not entirely true, Timmy. The old you, the real you, is still around. Just buried deep inside you." she murmured and curled against him in a strange kind of squirrel hug, "Deep in your heart, where everything good about you is stored... that's where you'll find the Timmy Turner from long ago. That's what I see when I look at you. My dear little godchild... my _sunu_."

"Your what?" Timmy questioned, puzzled by the term.

"Term of endearment. Never mind it." the fairy replied and smiled as he moved beneath her to give a small shrug, then lifted a hand to run his fingers through her fur. "You haven't made many wishes in a while." she added thoughtfully, "You still need us... right?"

"'Course I do, Wanda. I'd be lost with you and Cosmo." the brunet answered off-handedly, "If I didn't have you two around, I'd have _stayed_ dead! At least this way I can do something to help others avoid what happened to me." He closed his eyes in thought, still stroking the squirrel curled over his heart. "Hmm, now that I think of it, I lost the Adventurer's Map 3000 in that nullifier hall. Any chance of me getting another one? Um, wishing for one, I mean?" Wanda jumped up cheerfully, holding up her wand.

"You wish it; we dish it! Go ahead, Timmy! We've got all the magic in the world!" she declared and shrugged sheepishly, "Well, for now."

"I wish I had a new high-tech map that I can keep handy!" Timmy exclaimed happily and held out his arm as the pink fairy waved her wand and granted it. A shining white metal armband took its place around his right arm, replacing its predecessor snugly. Cosmo snorted, then blinked awake. He rolled onto his back and looked sleepily up at the two of them.

"Wish?" he asked.

"This is an upgraded version, the Adventurer's Map 3000 Make Two!" Wanda announced proudly, "All the features of the previous version available with voice activation and command recognition! Now you can just tell it what you need!"

"Dimmsdale map, magic and nullification zones." Timmy ordered and grinned as the armband immediately displayed the virtual map of gray, black and gold, "Cool! This oughtta come in handy!" He blinked and reached into his backpack, searching for the anti-magic trap detector. Pulling it free, he flipped it on and studied the screen intently. "Remy's been acting really happy all day. What the heck is going on that's making him so happy?" he murmured, comparing the screen to the map hovering before him.

One blip. Nullifier unit. Great. So **that's** what was going on; Remy was trying once again to retake the school. The field wasn't very wide as he had made a wish and it was granted. Given another few hours, the device would generate enough energy to blanket the high school. He muttered another wish, this time for his Rune Staff to be brought to him. Grabbing it, Timmy stood and gripped it tightly, Cosmo and Wanda poofing into his iPod and watch.

Time to work again. He should be getting hazard pay for this.

The Popular halls were being renovated to try to compete with the Ivory Tower. Timmy walked through it cautiously, following the detector to pinpoint the nullifier unit. The two fairies floated alongside him, looking around at the half-done renovations; the crew was off on their lunch break for the time being. Wanda pressed a hand to the wall, then recoiled, looking down at the gold paint on her palm in disgust.

"I can't believe Remy's obsessed with trying to outclass you. It's your childhood all over again!" she exclaimed. Timmy only shrugged, half-listening to the fairy. The detector continued beeping at him, displaying updated positions on the tracker. He shook his head in confusion.

"This thing is moving. But Remy's outside, dancing around, so what's moving this thing?" he muttered and clipped it to his belt, moving the Rune Staff to both hands. He moved on down the hall, then paused again when a faintly sick feeling settled in his stomach.

"Ugh." Cosmo grunted softly, wincing slightly once he floated by the brunet, "Field...!" His wings fluttered madly, powering him back out of range. He shook his head and looked down the corridor, eyes wide with surprise. "It's down there. What now?" he asked, scratching his head with a lost look. Timmy gripped the staff tighter, setting his face.

"Okay, then. Stay here. I'll smash the nullifier, then you guys can come in and clear up with wishes." he told the two fairies and pressed on, ignoring the rising ill feeling. He swallowed it down, shut his eyes and tried to call up mana around himself for protection. It felt sluggish, weak, and didn't respond to him very well. "Oh fine." he grumbled and tapped into his personal mana supply, pushing it outward into the mana shield. The shield flickered and it took a great deal of concentration to construct and maintain the bubble. It was a strain, but when the shield finally shone around him, Timmy felt tired, but better. He grinned. So, there really _was_ a weakness to the nullifier; if he put up a shield of concentrated mana, then the field wouldn't affect him. A.J. and Caleb's little tests on **that** theory were actually useful. Nullifiers couldn't cancel something that was stronger than their own pulses, so his shield of concentrated mana was the perfect barrier. It was hard to create it while in the field itself, so if he put up the mana shield before he walked into the nullifiers' range, then things would be so much easier.

He headed off at a jog, following the rhythmic beeping of the detector at his belt. There it was, sitting on a crate in plain sight, a ground nullifier unit perched on the box with its two metal legs folded up and the array of dishes moving about. Timmy glared at it, braced his legs and readied himself. He wasn't sure if he could swing the staff through his mana shield so he prepared to drop it. The shimmering blue shattered around him and, before the sick feeling could hit him full force, the brunet slammed the head of the Rune Staff onto the nullifier's array.

There was a sudden shriek of an alarm from both the nullifier and the detector at his hip. Timmy blinked in confusion, glanced at the device and stared at the symbol on the screen. The identification mark changed from nullifier to a question mark, both alarms wailing on. The young immortal's face fell.

"Ah, crud." he sighed just before the mock nullifier unit exploded in a shower of metal and plastic.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Remy strolled down the Popular hall leisurely, hands behind his back as he whistled cheerfully. Juandissimo floated alongside him, looking into a mirror as he smoothed back his hair. He crinkled his nose once and turned his gaze towards the smoke billowing nearby.

"Burning rubble is bad for the skin and hair. The smoke, it makes one look so unsexy." the fairy murmured and held up his wand, poofing a bio-suit to protect himself from the smoke and ash. Remy chuckled amiably and held a hand up nonchalantly.

"Oh, don't worry so much, Juandissimo! Once the garbage is cleaned out, this place will be so much nicer!" he remarked and turned the corner of the hall, stopping short and blinking at the scene before him. He grinned. "I am so glad I put in that order for the booby-trapped nullifier unit. Crocker was right in that report; the idiot can't see an ambush or trap even if it was planted in front of him!" the blonde went on cheerfully.

Timothy slumped against the wall near the remnants of the nullifier-destroyer, shards of metal and silicon piercing through the dark clothing he wore so often. No pink anywhere; had Wanda run away in horror, fearing for her life as she lost yet another godchild? Juandissimo recoiled from the sight, cringing.

"Remy... this... is not healthy." he told the boy slowly. The teen laughed and shook his head.

"It's perfectly fine! His magic couldn't save him this time, and when he triggered the bomb hidden inside the nullifier, it sealed his fate." he remarked and jumped back, startled, when the brunet groaned in pain. "What the bloody hell?!"

"Oww...." Timothy muttered and opened his eyes, looking down at himself, "Oh, crud. This is gonna hurt." Remy continued staring as the boy began pulling shrapnel out of his body, dropping them in a bloody pile on the floor. Once that was done, he struggled to his feet, leaned back against the wall, and shot Remy a vicious glare. "You know I'm going to whale on you later for this, right?" he growled.

"That's not possible! You should be dead! Three times before in the Dark Spires, you should have been dead and each time you escaped using magic!" Remy shrieked, "But here?! With a nullifier?! That bomb was right in front of you! With my own eyes, I saw the blast from outside! And you **still** live?!" Timothy gave him a bored look, absently picking a last jagged piece of metal out of his shoulder.

"I've told you several times before, man. Rules of life don't apply to me. You've got some really bad listening skills." the brunet replied and held out his hands, _"Mana around me, mend this broken form! Cure!"_ The rush of winds and restorative magic surrounded the brunet, completely healing every cut and gash and burn, save for the damage done to his clothes.

"How?!" Remy demanded. Timothy shrugged, folding his arms over his chest as he leaned casually against the wall.

"Mixed blessing, I guess. When you die, but don't stay dead, the Grim Reaper tends to forget that he's supposed to come for you when stuff like this happens." the brunet replied and cocked his head, "So you're booby-trapping the traps now, huh? Clever. I'll have to watch myself a lot more from now on." Remy scowled at him, infuriated.

"Do you have any idea how much I **hate** you this moment?" he snarled, "It's not fair! You're immune to my wishes, possess magic I can't steal, have control over one of those blasted fairies that shouldn't even be here, you've taken over the chart, destroyed two of my Dark Spires and now you're even immune to Death!" Timothy shrugged again. "How is it that you've gotten all that power to begin with?! What makes you so special, so deserving of all that power?!" the blonde snapped.

"If it's any consolation, I didn't want it to begin with. I was perfectly happy with being an average boy that no one understood." Timothy replied with another shrug, kicking aside a piece of rubble. "Life's funny sometimes. People spend their whole lives trying to find a purpose, some meaning for their lives." he remarked idly, "You know? Trying to figure out why they're there? Me? I had to **die** to find my purpose in life." He looked up at the blonde. "What's your purpose, Remy?" he asked, "Why do you do the things you do?"

"Like I'm going to tell you?" the Popular growled, "I'll find a way to get rid of you! Nullifiers will cancel your magic, just like it cancels fairies! You **must** be a fairy in disguise; why else would they work so well against you?!"

"You know, I've been trying to figure that out for the longest time. After all, I'm not a fairy; that whole wands and wings and crowns thing just ain't me." the brunet replied thoughtfully and smiled, "I should look through your files and see what you're doing with those things, build something to nullify the nullifier." Remy's eye twitched and Timothy lifted a finger. "Ah, ah, ah! That little twitch is back. I thought you would have had it checked out already." he pointed out. The blonde stiffened and cleared his throat, struggling to contain his fury and regain his composure.

"Of course. It's obvious that you would wish for the data." he remarked coldly. Timothy grinned and shook his head.

"Wish? I don't need a wish to get data from you, just knowing the right people works." he replied and looked over at the mess of metal and wood, "Your bomb destroyed my staff. I'll need to get another one." He picked up his backpack, brushed off grit and rubble, then slung it over his shoulder. "Nice chatting with ya, Remy, but you should think over what you're doing and find some other hobby. 'Cuz at this rate, those towers will all be gone before winter." he added with a negligent flip of his hand. Remy clenched his teeth, then spun and yelled at him.

"What the hell are you doing here anyway?!" he shrieked, "You're some mongrel orphan from New York City! Why the bloody hell would you care about _this_ pitiful city?!" He watched the brunet look back at him with a scowl.

"Because I do. Duh." Timothy returned and left.

"I wish I knew why he's so intent on ruining my plans." Remy grumbled and Juandissimo held out the tape player, hitting the button for the recorded message. The blonde shot him a glare. "Oh, fine! Then I wish you'd get rid of that stupid tape player!" he snapped. The Latino fairy sighed and waved his wand, poofing the player away. So much for Remy's happy mood.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Time marched on, three days, five, a week, then another. The magitech suits were almost complete after both A.J. and Caleb decided it would be easier on the teens to just streamline the design and provide only mythril suits. Light-weight and snug, the black body-suits came out looking like surfer's suits, easily worn under normal clothes. The angelic android had returned briefly to the Ivory Tower to be sure the suits fit properly, then sat in observation as each of the teens tested out the magitech armor.

"Didn't I say that I didn't want them near the Spires? I don't want them thinking they're going to be coming with me in the next assault." Timmy growled as he stormed into the room. Caleb gave him an innocent look.

"It's protection. After all, what happened to Chester could happen to your other friends. Wouldn't you want to keep them safe?" the angel asked casually. The two of them watched the teens working out in the training room, using passive droids for targets. "I brought another staff to replace the one you lost, like you asked." the redhead added and shook his head, "How **do** you manage to keep destroying ancient weapons so easily? They've survived worse times but the moment they are placed in your hands, their days are numbered."

"It's a gift." Timmy replied and went back to watching the teens.

It took only an hour of 'testing' before Caleb finally had enough and went into the room with the brunet tagging along. The S-List teens were about to be relabeled.

Chester McBadbat may still be horrible at baseball, but years of looking out for the Others and Tootie on the school yards had honed his brawling skills. Great arm strength, excellent rush ability, Caleb recommended he look into playing football. The blonde shook his head.

"Baseball's my game! I know I'll get good at it one day!" he declared optimistically, "Then I can redeem the McBadbat name and my Pop won't be living in shame anymore!"

"You can be a tackler of some kind, I think." the angel went on, disregarding the boy's chatter, "Run down traps and the like."

A.J. Ibrahim found time to devise utility belts for the suits. His own belt contained a variety of gadgets and small weapons. He calmly used high-tech devices to slice through the droids, ranging from small laser guns to silvery boomerangs and blades.

"Definitely a techie. No man-made machine can stand against you once you get going." Caleb remarked with a smile.

"It helps that I've learned a lot about the interior workings of my targets." A.J. replied smugly.

Sanjay employed many physical skills, mostly hand-to-hand combat, but once he found a pair of laser guns in his belt, there was no stopping the deadly accurate shots he fired off. The young Indian cheered happily as he sprayed the rows of moving droids with laser fire. He grinned once the room was cleared of targets, twirling the guns in his hands.

"My father was an excellent drill sergeant and taught me everything he knew!" he laughed and posed as the living android studied him, "And this body-suit is so very comfortable to wear! Black is slimming and goes well with everything!"

"I dub thee the heavy artillery man. The big guns and the grenades go to you. Don't tell anyone you're using weapons superior to the American military before you can even learn to drive a car. It makes us look suspicious to the government and we don't need that kind of attention." the angel told him.

Elmer was stocky and big compared to the other teens, and pent-up frustrations led him to just grab a droid and hurl it across the room. Sanjay yelled at him for dropping the pink hat while tossing the droid and Elmer drop-kicked a second one.

"It's stressful!" he screamed but scooped it back up and planted it on his head anyway.

"Burly, strong... you remind me of a very young Bruiser Khan." Caleb remarked brightly, "Hurl away, my man, hurl away!"

Trixie Tang had resumed familial training and took out droid after droid with lethal punches and kicks that came from various schools of unarmed combat when she wasn't wishing the droids into destruction with Apollo. Caleb could clearly identify two from Japan, then blinked as he matched moves from the third to a Middle Eastern martial art. The Popular girl flicked her hair back with a smile, gripping small metal bars in her hands.

"You do realize that half of those maneuvers were made for complete lethality, right?" the android whispered. Trixie smiled wider and nodded.

"One of my cousins was in the Marines, stationed in the Middle East for a while. He learned some stuff over there, then came back and taught it to me. The rest I learned from my grandfather and uncles. I try to keep it all a secret; I don't want to look strange to my friends." she returned.

"We found a martial artist." Caleb finally declared.

Tootie was an all purpose fighter, hurling out _Photon_ every now and then, but relying on her Laser Blade and daggers for damage. She tossed in several kicks and punches taught to her by Victoria, then turned around and called out wishes with Romi at her side firing magic beams from her wand. When all was said and done, Tootie twirled the sword in her hand and grinned back at the group. This was where she felt strongest, on the battlefield, fighting for the one she loved.

"Keep it up and you'll be a permanent part of the infiltration team with Timmy, Danny and me." Caleb told her softly, smiling, "Work at it. I want to see how far you can go."

Timmy watched the labeling of his friends and sighed, shaking his head. He kept telling them he didn't want them going near the Dark Spires, and here they were getting themselves suited up as though they were going to take out the towers on their own. He leaned back against the wall and looked aside at Cosmo and Wanda.

"What's it gonna take to convince them to give up?" he asked. Wanda shrugged with a wry smile.

"They're doing it all for you, Sport. Nothing short of dying will stop them from doing what they can if they believe it's what you as Timmy Turner would want them to do." she told him, "Loyalty like that is very rare, so be happy that they're the truest friends you could ever have." The teens began leaving the training room and he pushed away from the wall to follow, only to be held back by the android.

"Can I talk to you for a bit?" Caleb asked him and looked over at the fairies, "Um, alone?" Timmy tilted his head in confusion, then followed his gaze.

"Huh? Oh. Cosmo, Wanda, why not go on ahead and get something to eat? I'll catch up later on." he suggested. The couple looked at each other, shrugged and flew off. "Okay, so what's up?" the brunet turned his attention back on the redhead. Caleb brought a strange shining crystal from his pocket and held it out to him.

"Here. This is a mana crystal, a stone that holds a super-condensed amount of mana. This is what I run off of for power." he explained, "I don't have very many of them left and manufacturing them is incredibly difficult and not always successful." Timmy blinked at the gem, then looked up at him, puzzled.

"What's it got to do with me?" he asked and the android smiled.

"Do you think you could make one?" the redhead returned. Timmy jerked his head back in surprise.

"Conjure a mana crystal?! But I promised Wanda that I wouldn't make things like that!" he cried. Caleb shrugged, tossing the crystal lazily in one hand. "Hey, I take my promises to my fairies seriously! Especially after all they've done for me!" the brunet declared angrily.

"If you don't tell, I won't. She doesn't have to know you conjured something up." the angel remarked off-handedly, "Who knows? It might be that to save yourself or someone else, you'll need to conjure something on the fly. Wouldn't it be best to train that ability so you can quickly create tools and weapons and shields in the blink of an eye? Especially in areas where your fairies are unable to do so?" Timmy rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at his shoes uncertainly. It sounded reasonable enough, and there had been times when he'd wished he had something and Cosmo and Wanda couldn't poof it up for him because of a nullifier or magical budgeting or Da Rules prevented it. But to use that ability behind their backs, sneaking training on it like that....

"I don't know. It doesn't feel right to do that. It's like lying to them." he mumbled. Caleb continued tossing the crystal in his hand, watching him.

"It's up to you, of course. But just think about it. One day, I'll run out of power and that will be the end of me until someone finds another crystal for me. Might take a few centuries, who knows?" the android remarked, "It doesn't matter to me, because it's not the same as dying. I'm just powered down. But in the middle of a fight, when someone is desperate for help, wouldn't it be useful to be able to create something on the fly that could save them?" He pocketed the crystal and began to leave, waving absently. "Just food for thought! I'm picking up the suits and taking them back to New York for final touch-ups! That way, they're customized for each one of your allies!" he called back and disappeared.

Timmy remained standing alone in the training room, mulling over the words his former teacher left him with. Conjuring... that was bordering fairy magic, that power to create something from nothing. Well, almost nothing. That was something that Cosmo and Wanda could do, **should** do; conjuring stuff was **their** thing. It was all that stood between them and him to define who was human and who was fairy. That, and flying, and the wands, and the floating crowns. But if something happened to separate them, even if it was for a short while....

He swallowed hard, murmured a silent wish for forgiveness, then held out his hands, the shape of a blade forming over his palms. He felt steel, knew how it 'worked' and that memory would finally serve him....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The S-List sat in the meeting room, chatting excitedly over the potential last changes to be made to the black suits. Caleb picked up the black fabric, explaining things where he could. The fairies gathered together, discussing the future of Dimmsdale and Fairy World together if the current crisis went on, knowing that the third Spire was defended from potential bombings. The door to the room opened and Timothy walked in, exhausted. He dropped into a chair and sighed tiredly, forcing a smile at Wanda and Cosmo when they shot him concerned looks. A.J. clapped his hands and stood up.

"Great! We're all together!" he declared and pointed over at the wall monitor, "Trixie got us some way cool data on the Dark Spires. I spent a good part of the last two weeks analyzing the blueprints and schematics of everything those towers possess. Sanjay helped me with analyzing the makeup of our current target and created what appears to be the perfect tactical offense."

"Wait, wait! We need Danny for this!" Timmy blurted out, waving his arms, "Caleb! Call him! You've got his number on speed dial and I don't have my phone on me!" The android picked his out of a pocket, hit a button and held the phone to his ear.

"Hey, Danny Phantom. Got Sam and Tucker with you? Great. Grab 'em and teleport yourself to the Ivory Tower; we're planning another assault on the Spire. Yeah, the info's up to date." he told the ghost and frowned, "No, leave Daniel behind for this, you need somebody to cover Amity Park for you. No, _Daniel_, not Danielle! Slow down, you idiot, the wind shear's messing with the audio!" He tapped a foot impatiently. "I said, **Daniel** **Fenton** should cover for you while you're here with us. Got it? Give him a call when I hang up. Never mind the timing, he's got it covered. All right, see you in a few." He hung up and shoved the phone away, scowling slightly. "Caught him zooming around doing stupid stunts again. He knows better than to do that; he'll attract more attention than he needs." the redhead sighed and shook his head, "Oh well. He'll be here in a second."

No sooner had he finished with that than a burst of white and pale-green smoke exploded in the room and dissipated to reveal Danny Phantom hovering there with his arms around the waists of Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. Apollo and Andromeda instinctively poofed into their respective disguises on their godchildren, leaving Cosmo and Wanda to zip towards Timothy and disappear into iPod and watch forms out of habit. Danny grinned and set both humans down, then pulled his legs up into a lotus position. The trio greeted the group and both Goth and geek sat at the table, joining the other young teens.

"This is cool. Seriously. Team Phantom and Team Turner, meeting face to face as a whole unit." Tucker remarked with a grin, lifting his glasses slightly to adjust them, "This is gonna be sweet!"

"Then let's get started on what we've discovered." A.J. began and held up a hand to the monitor as it displayed different files and images according to his words. "The Dark Spire we're after has been set with booby traps within the building, but those traps are only on the first two floors of the structure. The halls and paths Timothy, Tootie, Danny and Caleb took are all equipped with various triggers that will set off the traps and units specifically created to prevent them from advancing. There is no path they can safely take separately to avoid the specialized traps, plant the bombs and escape before the tower is destroyed. And with the number of nullifiers in that building, no magic can be used.

"However, after studying the schematics closely, I've discovered that the traps are all being manipulated by the main control system at the top of the tower. It's the same server system that's controlling the anti-magic traps that are within the tower, as well as outside of it." the young super-genius explained. The group sat up in surprise, blinking at him in shock.

"You mean the day we went after the Spire the first time, there really _were_ anti-magic traps in the hatches below us?!" Timothy cried in shock, "Why weren't they activated?! Especially when you guys came to save us with Cosmo, Wanda and the other fairies?! Those things are supposed to come online and hunt Cosmo with a vengeance if he got close enough for them to detect his DNA!"

"Here's why." A.J. told the group and the monitor continued its displays, "The server control system for the Spire is working at near maximum capacity already, what with maintaining the manufacture of anti-magic units, controlling the units that already are under its influence around the Spire, the ones in the region it lords over, and calculating the formulas and energy output equations necessary to bring the Dark Spires into full operation." He gave the group a serious look, "That means that the Spires, powerful as they are now, are not at full strength yet. We have to destroy them before they achieve one hundred percent efficiency."

"So the main control system is handling all those units _and_ it's expected to be at full strength?!" Tucker exclaimed in horror, "That poor server!" The group stared at him and Danny lifted a hand to his face in embarrassment.

"Ignore him for now. He loves technology way too much sometimes." the ghost sighed.

"In the meantime, because the main control system was working on controlling the traps and units within the tower as well as calculating those equations, there wasn't enough power in the server system to safely activate the units in the hatches around the Spire." A.J. went on, "That's the Dark Spire's weakness! If we can force it to activate the units outside of the tower and then have those units constantly pester the server control with updates on multiple moving targets, then the main control system will overload from the excess data and shut down! The Dark Spire will be completely defenseless from the inside out!" The group erupted into excited cheers, elated with the plan.

"It's brilliant! That's it! We'll overload the servers and cause a server crash!" Caleb exclaimed brightly. Timothy jumped up with a yell.

**"Absolutely not!"** he shouted and glared at the group until they quieted and stared at him in shock, "I don't even know what the plan is and already I don't like it! I heard the words 'multiple targets'; you're planning to have everyone here run around the tower and act like diversions, right, A.J.?!"

"It is the most tactically sound plan we could conceive!" Sanjay told him sharply, "We will wear the fully completed magitech suits and prod the outside units into activation. We will then continue to evade the anti-magic units and force them to overload the servers inside the tower until it shuts down! As long as we destroy the nullifier units, we will be able to have magical aid from you, Tootie, Caleb and the...!" Timothy raised his fist, suddenly enveloped in flames as he gave a wrathful shriek.

_"Finish that and you won't live to see fifteen!"_ he raged and the Indian yelped in terror, flipping back out of his chair and onto the floor. The iPod and watch popped off, muffled squeals of pain echoing softly from them as they bounced under the table. Tootie and Trixie both screamed and dove under the table in fright as the other teens jumped back in shock. Danny shot forward, grabbed the brunet by the front of his shirt and slammed him back against the wall, pinning him above the floor as he pulled his own fist back, ectoplasmic energy surrounding his hand.

"Drop it! Get a hold of yourself!" the ghost snapped. Timothy struggled fiercely, clutching his arm in attempts to pry himself loose. "Snap out of it! Listen to me, Tim-Tim; don't let your anger win!" The young immortal only shrieked a second time, the flames of white flaring out around the boy turning a vivid red, then all-consuming black, and finally died down to a soft pink that paled gradually back to white before fading to nothing. The wordless howl of rage and pain ebbed away to silence and Timothy slumped forward limply over the ghost's arm, breaths coming in quick, shallow gasps.

"What the hell was **that**?" Chester asked softly after a long silence fell over the two teams. His eyes were wide with the sheer shock of seeing someone they trusted and called a friend just explode like that.

"I don't know. But it worries me." Caleb murmured, stunned by the display. Danny carefully collected the brunet in his arms and looked back at the group, a serious expression on his face that spoke volumes of his familiarity with this kind of situation.

"The iPod and watch he usually wears; where are they?" he asked. Elmer ducked down, grabbed the two items and held them out in a shaky hand. "Give them to me." The ghost held open one hand, adjusting how he supported the younger teen, then collected the pink and green items. "He's going to be out of it for a while and he's going to need me with him when he wakes up." Danny told the group quietly, "I know what Timothy's going through. I've been through it myself once or twice. Finish hammering out the plan, but wait a while before we actually carry it out. Trying to make a move without Timothy's permission or involvement is only going to trigger another one of these... breaking points...." He turned to his two friends next. "Sam, Tucker, make some calls. You know which ones to make to cover up your tracks for a day or two." he told them.

"Got it, Danny. Operation Clueless Parents kicking in." Sam remarked, digging out her phone as Tucker did the same.

"The Ivory Tower has spare rooms in the higher floors. You may use those." Caleb added softly and gave the phantom a worried look, "Is Timothy going to be all right? His mana output went off my gauge for several moments there. If it hadn't been for the abruptness of everything, I would have used _Forsaken_ to weaken the output."

"He'll be fine. I just need to help him sort some things out." the ghost returned, "Whatever caused this must have been heaping up on him for a while now. You guys should be more careful and wary of what's going on with him. He's the only Hero Dimmsdale's got, right? Don't burn him out so soon!" He flew off with the brunet, floating out the door and off to a hopefully safe haven.

"See what I mean?" A.J. told Trixie as she crept out from under the table. Her eyes were wide, hair a mess, but she nodded in understanding.

"I... just have... to... get... stronger...." she stammered. Sam peeked under the table once Tootie tugged on her skirt. The young Goth looked up at her fearfully.

"That's what you meant by a darkness in the hero, right? He almost hurt Sanjay, but Danny stopped him." Tootie whispered, shaking from the shock, "All that power he had... he could have hurt Danny Phantom, too... but he didn't...." Sam smiled slightly and reached down to put her hand over the young girl's own.

"Darkness didn't win today, but it was a pretty close call anyway. But you see what I mean? It takes a very strong heart to love someone like him, to reach through the destructive potential and touch on his true heart and help him remember who he is, what he is, why he fights so fiercely." she murmured softly, "So grow strong if you feel you are the one who can stand by him, and when you can face him down while he's wielding all of that with the wrong intentions, you'll have the strength to overcome anything."

The remaining members of the newly-named Team Turner resumed their places at the table. Chester gingerly held out a hand to Trixie, helping her to her feet as she brushed off her skirt and blouse. She gave him a tremulous smile in thanks, one hand reaching up to try to salvage her hairstyle. The blonde flinched slightly, released her hand a bit too quickly, then took his own place at the table. Trixie blinked at the reaction, tilting her head as she watched him stare curiously at his hand before looking back up at the group of teens.

"Uh... the ghost dude's right; let's hold off on putting any plans into action until we've gotten the suits worked out and Timothy's come down from Cuckoo Land." Chester agreed at last, courage returning quickly, "No sense in short-circuiting the guy's brain when it's the Spire we want to fry. As leader of the Others, I'm gonna make it my personal duty to figure out what made him blow a fuse to begin with!"

"What about the simulator program for Timmy's death?" Sanjay asked dryly, folding his arms over his chest. Chester winced again.

"Um, yeah. Right after I go check on that." he amended and bolted for the door.

"I have to finish work on these suits, so expect me back in another day or so." Caleb told the group and followed Chester out the room.

"You guys aren't very well organized as a team." Tucker remarked idly to the younger teenagers, earning several glares aimed at him, "What? It was just an observation! Don't hurt me for stating a fact!" He looked towards Sam helplessly, only to find another glare coming from her. "Not you too! Come on!" the older African-American in the group complained, "Is it my fault these guys can't even deal with one of Timm-erph?!" The Goth quickly slammed her hand over his mouth and put a finger to her lips, narrowing her eyes.

"Sshhhh! Shut _up-_!" she growled at him, "It's against the law here to call anyone, **other** than Timmy Turner, 'Timmy'! You wanna get us kicked outta Dimmsdale?!" Tucker pulled her hand away, puzzled.

"But don't these guys know that he's ermph!" The hand came back.

"Do you **ever** listen to what I tell you?! His name is **Timothy**, okay?! Just Timothy!" Sam snapped, "Write it in your PDA!"

"Boy, it's true what they say, huh?" Trixie remarked inanely, touching her fingertips lightly to her cheek as she tilted her head and watched them, "Geeks don't grow up; they just get bigger bodies."

"Sam's not a geek! Shut up!" Tootie yelled at her angrily. The Popular girl flicked her hair back and sniffed.

"She'd have to be one. Why else would the two of you hang out together?" she pointed out smugly. Sanjay shot out of his seat and scowled at her, taking offense at the words himself.

"Ah-**hah**! I knew the Shiva would not be able to resist her true nature!" he accused, "You don't actually want to help us; you are just here to find a way to worm yourself into Timothy's life! First you destroy Timmy, and now you seek to destroy someone who is saving the city in Timmy's name! Shame! _Shame!_"

"If Timmy was here, this wouldn't be happening." Elmer sighed mournfully, "I wouldn't have to wear the hat, the fighting would stop, the Spires would go away and the city would come back to life. I wish Timmy was here. I wish, I wish, I really, really wish...." A.J. frowned and set his arms akimbo as the bickering of the other three teens was ignored.

"Elmer, knock it off. You don't have a fairy godparent to wish with, and even if you did, you heard from the others what Da Rules say about wishes that deal with Timmy. Those can't be granted!" he pointed out irritably. Tucker looked over at him in confusion and the younger teen blinked, then held a hand up to his mouth in sudden realization of what he said, "Uh? I mean...!"

"Fairy godparents? Is that what this mess is about?" Tucker asked and grinned at Sam, "Hey, I didn't know this was gonna be one of those **fun** missions! Why didn't you guys say so?!" The Goth punched him in the arm.

"Because then you'd be giggling your butt off at everything Cosmo and Wanda do and not pay attention to what you're doing!" she snapped, "This is a job! They called for Danny Phantom and Danny brought us along to help! We're _supposed_ to be **helping** them!"

"You already know about Timothy's fairy godparents?" A.J. realized in surprise. The two young adults nodded in unison.

"We're Team Phantom! We're honorary human allies to Fairy World! We're allowed to know about fairies 'cuz we helped them out a bunch of times!" Tucker declared proudly. Sam rolled her eyes.

"It was one time, Tucker." she muttered in exasperation, "And you weren't that much help."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Timmy winced, opened his eyes and pressed the heel of one hand to his head. The pounding of several dozen elephants stampeding through his brain had barely finished ebbing away. He sat up with a soft groan of pain, then blinked in surprise. Sitting up? Why was he lying down to begin with? Where was he anyway? He looked down at grass, then around at the many tombstones of the Dimmsdale cemetery.

"Feeling human again?" Danny's voice asked quietly and the brunet turned his head to spot his half-ghost cousin floating nearby. Cosmo and Wanda hovered by him as well, watching him with concerned expressions. Timmy pulled his legs up and hugged them, suddenly feeling very small and... ashamed.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened." he murmured, "It's kind of fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure I scared everybody." He hunched his shoulders and shut his eyes again. "I probably hurt someone, too. I'm sorry."

"We'll live. They're just minor burns and fairies heal very quickly, remember?" Wanda remarked as lightly as she could, smiling cheerfully, "Right, Cosmo?"

"I'm Fairy Toast!" Cosmo cheered, "I'll get the butter!" Timmy lifted his head and laughed softly. The green-haired fairy pulled up his legs and clacked his heels together. "On the plus side, I've never moved so fast as an MP3 player before! I set a new Fairy World record!" he added, smiling wider as the brunet laughed again.

"Ghostly regeneration took care of the burns so fast, they barely had time to hurt." Danny tossed in with a careless shrug, "And since we're the only three who had any physical contact with you when you went all volcanic on us, there's no problem." He gave the boy a more serious look. "But what's important right now is to figure out what happened. Why did you suddenly go ballistic on that Hindu kid? Sanjay, right?" he asked, "Did something happen?" Timmy sighed and rubbed his head.

"No one's listening to me. I told everyone after that last mission that I didn't want anyone else to go after the Dark Spires. They could get hurt or killed; I'm already dead, so it doesn't matter what happens to me when I go after them." the brunet began and stood up, stretching out his limbs and loosening them up, "But they just ignored me and went on to make this crazy plan that could get them **all** killed! If they just waited until I finished my training and invented a few more strong spells, then they wouldn't have to worry about the towers." He sighed harshly, shaking his head. "And Remy's changing things up at Oberon; he snuck in a nullifier that had a bomb built into it just to try to get rid of me! I set it off and got covered in shrapnel! Cosmo and Wanda tried to help me out of there while I was out cold, but then they heard Remy whistling as he was coming to see what happened and hid in my backpack. I woke up just as he got there, so now he knows I'm immortal."

"Rival to rival chat?" Danny asked knowingly.

"Yeah. We had one of those. I think I got under his skin more." Timmy sighed, "Training's been killer, I'm exhausted after every session, the girls won't leave me alone, Veronica's still harping on to anyone nearby about my return from the dead, the guys keep insisting on finding 'the true cause of Timmy Turner's death'." He lifted his hands and dropped them in defeat, sagging under the sudden weight of so many problems coming together on him. He shook his head, holding back tears.

"And I'm starting to lose who I am! Danny, I don't belong here! I wanted to, I wanted to be home, but it's all **wrong**!" The brunet looked up at his cousin, trembling uncontrollably. "What **am** I?! I don't know anymore! Am I alive, or am I dead?! Am I even still human?! I don't have a heartbeat; I don't need as much air as normal people! I probably don't even need to _breathe_ anymore! I've been shot at, stabbed, pushed off of catwalks, blown up and strangled, and every time I just walk away from it all!" he cried, voice rising in volume and hysteria, "I'm a freak, Danny! **A freak!** Nature doesn't _want_ me, Life **hates** me, Death _ignores_ me, Science can't _explain_ me! I can't go to Heaven, I can't go to Hell, I don't even fit in in the Ghost Zone! I definitely don't belong on Earth and Fairy World isn't going to give me the time of day! I'm **worse** than a freak; I'm a Universal orphan!"

Wanda and Cosmo winced in unison as a loud crack sounded. Timmy's eyes went wide with shock, one hand lifting up to his cheek as it stung from the sharp smack given to him by his older cousin. Danny calmly lowered his hand and folded his arms over his chest, glaring down at him.

"And what do you think **I** am?" he asked coldly, "Not really human, not really ghost. I don't fit in here and I'm not wanted in the Ghost Zone. Am I a ghost trying to fit in with humans, taking a human form that was once mine; or am I a human with creepy ghostly powers from a ghost that was accidentally destroyed? Am I one person with two faces, or am I two minds trapped in one body? Am I alive with the power to temporarily suspend life's rules for myself, or am I half-dead and just placing my soul in Death's embrace for a while in exchange for the powers of a ghost?" He leaned down, his face barely inches from Timmy's own. "I'm a freak of nature, a freak of science. People despise me, people adore me; people fear me, people _worship_ me. People want me gone, people want more of me; people desire what I am now, people desire what I could **become**. I'm caught in the middle and pulled on from both sides; my voice is ignored unless it's to save themselves. I'm just a freak, Timmy; who cares about **me**?" Danny hissed scathingly, "Don't give me that bullshit story about being a freak. I was one _long_ before you climbed that damned playground toy."

Timmy stumbled back and fell onto the grass, staring up at his cousin in shock. He'd never heard **that** from him before! Had Danny really hated what he had turned into as much as he hated becoming an immortal? The older teen had been serious when he said they were exactly alike! Timmy sniffled once and hugged himself. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't really blame Danny for what happened to him, or anyone else for that matter. Ultimately, it was his own fault he died; he just had friends and family who loved him too much to let his life end so soon. Their pain, their sacrifices, their hard work gave him a second chance at life, even though their rushing and not thinking things through caused his immortality. He shouldn't be so harsh to them, and if he was going to be a Hero, then he shouldn't be so... whiny.

"Sorry." Timmy mumbled and looked up at Danny with a hesitant smile, "_I_ don't think you're a freak. I didn't back then, and I still don't. To me, you're the coolest cousin I ever met!" The halfa grinned back and sat on the grass with him, ruffling his hair affectionately.

"Hey, you forgot Jazz, but she's more nut than cool." he reminded and looked around with a sigh, "Well, seems like this place is just about the _only_ place the two of us can really fit in." Timmy laughed, rubbing away tears. "I dunno. A cemetery might make for a real nice hangout, provided there weren't so many stiffs around. Not very good conversationalists, y'know." Danny went on and the fairies joined in the laughter, flying in to hug Timmy and let him know things were all right again, "We could spice it up some, add some cobwebs or a skeleton. I'll get a few chains, you dress up as the Highlander.... This place'll kick ass come Halloween." The brunet laughed harder, shaking his head.

"Stop it! You're killing me!" he cried. The group froze, looked at each other, then burst out laughing again, rolling onto the grass in hysterics.

"Good one!" Danny managed between snickers and sat up, picking grass blades from his white hair, "So, I ask once more; feeling human again?"

"Yeah." Timmy replied with a contented sigh, "Most definitely human. Un-killable, but definitely human." The fairies nodded in agreement, happy to see their godchild's personality returned to normal.

"Because it would be nuts if he was anything else!" Cosmo chimed helpfully and earned a jab in the ribs from his wife.

"Hush! Don't ruin the moment!" she scolded and clasped her hands together dreamily, "This is so picture perfect! Oh, I wish I had a camera!" Timmy's eye twitched once before he dug out his wallet and opened it up, peering into it.

"Hmm. Can't buy one... forgot my phone... I guess I'll wish for a camera!" he remarked. Wanda blinked at him, puzzled.

"Well, you don't have to wish for one on **my** account." she began, scratching her head.

"I do! I wish I had a cool digital camera that could print its own pictures on the spot!" Timmy declared and the fairies waved their wands. The camera dropped out of a pink cloud puff into his hands. He held it up, pointed it at Danny and clicked.

"Did you get my good side?" the halfa joked, rubbing his hair and posing, "I tend to give off a little extra glare sometimes; hazards of having an aura as a ghost." Timmy turned the camera on his godparents but Wanda waved at him, smiling sheepishly.

"Oh, I look bad in pictures, Timmy! A camera adds ten pounds, didn't you know?" she told him and Cosmo immediately began scanning the surroundings with a smile.

"Wow! Really?! There must have been a lot of hidden cameras following you around then!" he exclaimed, earning a smack to the head from her wand. The brunet held the camera out to her.

"Here you go. For future picture perfect moments." he told her. Wanda accepted the camera, looking as though she were about to cry. She reached out and pat his head instead, running her fingers through strands of his hair.

"Oh, Sweetie... such a good kid. I wish we could have been able to save you that day...." she murmured and Timmy gave her a half-hearted smile and shrug.

"Sorry." he whispered back, "Can't grant that wish."


	14. Chapter 14

14

With a night to cool off and the promise of brighter hopes the next day, the members of Team Phantom and Team Turner reconvened in the Ivory Tower to go over the details of the plan once more. Caleb passed out the finished magitech body-suits, explaining that he'd done his best to streamline them, but the modifications to customize each one according to the wearer's fighting styles had made them too cumbersome to wear underneath clothing. The suits became the new uniforms for Team Turner.

"I don't mind. It really makes us an official super-hero team now!" Chester laughed and held up his suit, "Just somebody explain to me why mine has these weird armor things on the arms and stuff."

"Rushing. Protects your arms while you're running things down. Same with the legs, so you don't get tripped up easily." Caleb explained in boredom and shook his head, "Everyone has a small sheet with their suits that tells you what changes were made and why. Read them over, please." Tootie opened her package and blinked as she brought out the Mystic Symbol and Faerie Ring from within.

"Didn't these belong to Timothy?" she asked in confusion.

"You're using elven skills and procedures with your magic, so they'll actually work for you." the android added, "Read the paper."

"Why do I have to wear one?" Timothy griped, pulling his own suit from the box, "I can't die, so what's the deal if something comes at me with a buzz-saw?"

"How confident are you in healing yourself if something came along and sawed you in half?" Caleb asked him, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. The brunet sighed.

"Fine, I'll wear it. At least this one's unmodified, so I can just wear it under my clothes." he grumbled.

"Can I take the hat off when I wear this?" Elmer asked hopefully, clutching his uniform with its thicker fabric and reinforced sleeves.

"No!" Sanjay barked at him, "Hat stays on! We promised Timmy!" He added in a narrowed glare. "You're not _smiling_! Smile, or I shall test the durability of your new uniform while you're wearing it!" The stockier boy plastered on a smile. Timothy sighed and shook his head, setting down his suit.

"Speaking of that, can I have everyone's attention?" he called out and all eyes turned to him, "About yesterday, and what I did...." He rubbed his head, somewhat lost. "Uh, well, I'm not sure how to say this. Mostly, I want to say I'm sorry for freaking everybody out. I was stressed and ticked off about a lot of things, but I shouldn't have tried to take it out on you guys. That was wrong." He smiled, "What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that even though I wanted to do all of this by myself, to spare everyone from pain, it turns out that I need you all with me to get through this. You're Timmy Turner's friends, right? You supported him during rough times." The brunet shrugged helplessly, still grinning. "And if I'm going to be doing all this for him, then I might as well have you along for the same reason. I could use some support, I could use a team, but most of all, I could really use some good friends to back me up when I'm feeling rotten."

"We told you before, Dude!" Chester remarked with a laugh, "All of this is for the memory of Timmy, the Heart of Dimmsdale! We can't say no to his last wish! And you're our friend now, too! We'll stick by you like the grime on the inside of an economy-sized dumpster!"

"I thought you weren't jumping in those anymore." Elmer questioned and the blonde folded his arms over his chest with a huff.

"Old habits die hard. Besides, it's fun." he replied. Timothy laughed and shook his head.

"All right then, Team Turner! Ready for a good fight?" he exclaimed. The group lifted their fists in unison.

"Yeah!" they cheered.

"Then, A.J., Sanjay, tell us about your plan! We're gonna attack the Spire tonight!" the brunet declared. The two boys hurried to the wall monitor, clicking it on to display the images from the day before.

"Picking up from yesterday, the Dark Spire's main control system handles everything connected to the Spire, from the traps spread throughout its ruling region, to the booby traps within its walls. It's also calculating the formula for creating a perfect blanket of anti-magic to cover Dimmsdale. This takes up a huge amount of processing power." A.J. began and looked to Sanjay. The Indian picked up the lead.

"So here is the plan that we put together. The tower is currently using power on keeping the booby traps inside the Spire active because it only expects inside attacks. We must force it to see an outside attack so that it will activate the anti-magic units in the hatches surrounding the tower!" Sanjay exclaimed and pointed at the image of the Spire, "Everyone here will then move around the Spire and distract as many units as possible. This will make them send signals and information back to the main server system constantly. Once we have enough units doing this, the server will overload from the flood of data and crash, rendering everything under its control useless!"

"In other words, the Dark Spire will be dead?" Timothy asked in confusion. The two boys nodded eagerly.

"You'll be able to just stroll in, plant the bombs, stroll out and detonate them from a distance." A.J. agreed, "No opposition of any kind and you can take all the time in the world to set up the bombs!"

"The only problem is getting the units in the hatches to activate and chase everybody. They're only set to hunt those who use magic." Tucker pointed out, "Like fairies and Caleb and Timothy. What about the people who don't have magic?"

"I know some magic, so if I cast a few spells, the units will lock onto me." Tootie remarked and held her hand out to Romi as the dark-haired fairy bowed politely to Team Phantom, "This is Andromeda, Romi for short. She's my fairy godmother. If I make a wish and she grants it, the units will lock onto her as well, so we're covered."

"I can make a wish too, and Apollo, my fairy godfather, will have units on his tail. But I don't have any magic myself." Trixie sighed, waving up at the red-haired fairy floating by her.

"The rest of us don't have fairy godparents or magic, so what do we do to get the units on our cases?" Elmer asked. Timothy frowned, tapping a fingertip against his two front teeth in thought. He brightened after a moment, snapping his fingers.

"DNA!" he exclaimed and the group stared at him, baffled. "The anti-magic units are all programmed to automatically chase after anything that has even a bit of Cosmo's DNA on it!" the brunet told the teams and held a hand out to Cosmo, "We'll take strands of his hair and place them in the fibers of the magitech suits. When they pass close to the units, the traps will pick up the DNA of the hairs and chase after it!"

"Great idea!" the green-haired fairy cheered, then blinked and put his hands on his head, "Wait! That means I'll go bald!"

"We need enough so that everyone with a magitech suit gets enough to draw the attentions of the units." Danny told the fairy, "I'll keep the nullifiers out of the field so nothing hurts the fairies, Caleb, Timothy or Tootie. Sam and Tucker can back me up on that with the Fenton Foamer and the Lens gun." Wanda poofed in a pair of scissors and smiled at her husband almost evilly. Cosmo sighed, shut his eyes and held still as the magical scissors snipped at his hair. Timothy held out his hands, catching the strands of light green as they fell. Deed done, Cosmo felt at his bare head, made a face and waved his wand, instantly restoring his former hairstyle to perfect condition.

"See, if you could do that, then why were you complaining about it to begin with?" A.J. pointed out to the fairy.

"It's the principle of the thing." Cosmo muttered back, running his fingers through his hair to shape the style properly, "Besides, I like my hair the way it is. Easy to manage. Like his." He pointed the wand at Timothy. The brunet rolled his eyes.

"Copy-cat. I've always had my hair like this." he sighed.

"I had mine this way first, and I'm way older than you." Cosmo shot back and stuck out his tongue, "Nyah!"

"I wish these strands of hair were woven into the magitech suits of everyone here!" Timothy declared and the two fairies granted the wish. Team Turner watched in awe as the strands of green shot to each black suit and threaded themselves between the woven strands of mythril and cotton. The light faded and each teen examined the altered suits. "Okay then. Caleb, we have the bombs?"

"Got a satchel full of them." the android replied, motioning towards his normal travel bag bulging with items and a tall staff with a large orb on the end that crackled with electricity, "I also have a copy of the Thunder Scepter for you to use; I really don't want the original destroyed. The Rune Staff that you managed to lose **was** an original. It belonged to an ancient Hero named Keele Zeibel."

"The crybaby?" Timothy asked and Caleb winced, then sighed in resignation.

"Yeah... the crybaby...." he grumbled.

"Right, so is everybody ready?" the brunet went on with a determined grin, "Team Phantom! Ready for battle?!" Danny, Sam and Tucker lifted their fists with cheers. "Team Turner! Ready to show Remy that he can't keep Dimmsdale in misery?!"

"Yeah!" the teens declared, "Let's do it! For the Heart of Dimmsdale!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Master Control Spire~

Crocker looked up at the screen, puzzled. Since the day the units of Spire Four were dispatched to observe the attack of Spire Five and disappeared from radio contact, no sign of them had ever made it to him to register anything in the way of destruction. Yet now, roughly two weeks after the successful defense of Spire Five, signals were coming in from the missing squadron. Crocker collected the data, analyzed them, calculated the distance and took on a baffled expression.

Mars?

The signals were reaching him from the red planet, and mostly involved the investigation of several 'hostile'-looking rocks and a somewhat decrepit roving device. The retired teacher narrowed his eyes at the data and tapped his fingertips together, old habits returning. Mysterious energy signatures, sudden appearances and disappearances of people and units... it had to be it. It was the only logical explanation.

Fairy godparents had returned to Dimmsdale.

One of the new Timmy's allies **had** to have a fairy godparent. It was the only way a whole squadron of three hundred ground destroyer units could have just been transported to Mars in an instant. If there had been a nullifier among them, the fleet would have made it to the Spire to finish their observation mission. But there hadn't been one, and the lot of them was dumped on some impromptu off-world mission. How would Remy react to that bit of news?

Crocker smiled and settled back in his chair. It took years to put up the nullification field over Dimmsdale, and he absolutely hated the whole thing. He had wanted to prove fairies existed, wanted to use the data he'd collected on them, his theories, and use the knowledge he'd gained to complete his own personal mission in life. And with the blasted field up, no fairies could enter the city and none could reveal themselves through mindless wishes. Everything was canceled, just as Remy wanted.

Why Remy would desire the abolishment of fairy magic was beyond him; perhaps the little brat couldn't stand the sight of someone using anything other than money to make themselves happy. But, really, in this town, the concept of happiness was so far out of reach that people just gave up on ever attaining the emotion again. What was the point? The Heart of Dimmsdale once brought them near limitless joy, and he was gone. Who could do the same as he did, and fill the city with a hope and love that made the citizens dream of the days when they were young and carefree? Dreams that enabled them to press on during dreary days and keep Dimmsdale going strong. Dreams that inspired the children to aim higher in life. Dreams that made it seem possible to do the impossible.

It had been Remy's greatest wish; to take the place of the Heart of Dimmsdale. And when Timmy Turner fell to his death, it seemed as though some dark image of Fate had thrown the boy a golden opportunity to realize that dream. Remy took the chance, used money to try to buy happiness for a select few citizens, and stood by in eager anticipation. Of course, the plan failed; the people of Dimmsdale may not be the most intellectually advanced in the nation (hell, they barely touched on below-average intelligence), but they could sense intentions and emotions like a city of psychics. Remy's plot only made them yearn and pine for Timmy even more. He'd had his chance and ruined it, elevating the young Turner into sainthood through his own actions. It had driven the blonde nearly mad with rage.

Then came the call to him at his mother's home, where he'd locked himself in isolation and flipped through old evil plans and photos of the boy, regretting every day he made Timmy's life hell. Remy asked if he still had any interest in fairies. Crocker had replied he didn't, not after his obsession destroyed the one person in the city who really meant something. But then the blonde talked on about a plan, a fiendishly clever little plan that had promised to relieve the burden of sorrow from Dimmsdale and would lead him to that which could undo the damage of that tragic day.

_"Build me towers in Dimmsdale to flood the city with a darkness that stops fairy magic cold. Fairies will lose their powers and be exposed for all to see. Then you could capture as many as you like, and harness their power to make the greatest wish you could ever desire."_ Remy had told him over the phone, his smug voice dripping with a poorly disguised malice that had once been Crocker's own, _"Think about it. With all that power, surely you could use magic to do what no one else had thought to do. Command Death to return this city's most precious treasure; demand the return of the Heart of Dimmsdale!"_

Crocker had at first refused; if fairies lost their powers because of the field, how would such a wish be granted to begin with? Remy immediately countered with a threat. He had possession of a certain piece of hardware that was used in one of his last plans. All that had to be done was have it sent to local law enforcement with a carefully prepared story, and the wrath of Dimmsdale would come down on him and Dolores Crocker. Had it been his life alone that was threatened, Crocker would have cared less, but to include his mother... no. Denzel would not stand for that. Dimmsdale as a whole was pitifully stupid, but when enraged it collectively attacked a target with merciless vengeance; that much he knew from experience. And if it so much as smelled as though it involved the Heart of Dimmsdale, nothing less than the complete eradication of the Crocker Family Tree would satisfy the demand for retribution.

Guilt and the need to protect his family demanded he surrender to the boy millionaire's demands.

"Turner, you still work miracles even in your reward. Your fairies... I know you must have had fairies... have they come here on their own to pay destruction with destruction in turn?" the withering teacher murmured in hushed tones, "Or have you somehow sent one of your old childhood confidantes to help bring down my abominations, knowing he or she, too, had a fairy godparent?" He smiled, tapping his fingertips together once more.

Perhaps, the chance to test more theories would come to him soon. After all, so many subjects of his early experiments in magical transferal had not survived, and it was going to take a great deal of fairy power to grant the one wish that would repair all the damage done to the city and its people.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I can't tell if this place is deserted or dead." Chester remarked dryly as he looked around the lot. One whole city block was dedicated to the Dark Spire and its surrounding hatches filled with inactive anti-magic units. Team Turner stood at the edge of the block, gazing out the ominous tower that rose high above them and dominated the evening sky.

"Probably both. The air here smells lifeless." Timmy replied softly, one fist on his hip as he pulled the detector from its pouch and studied the screen. Tootie bit her lip as she listened to her sister through her phone.

"I know, Vicky. Staying out late doesn't make you look good, I know. I have some stuff I need to do tonight." she murmured, "Just, um... I know this is gonna sound weird but.... Wish me luck, and if I don't come home...." She shut her eyes, held back tears, then rushed her last words, "Iloveyou,BigSis! Bye!" Tootie clapped the phone closed, sighed and shoved it into a pocket in her belt, pulling free the Laser Blade and Vicky's dagger to replace it.

Team Phantom was in a huddle nearby, murmuring and whispering as Danny made quick motions in the air with a finger. Trixie and A.J. gave them puzzled looks, before returning their attentions to the brunet standing at the lead. Each of them had made their final calls to family, letting them know they were all okay, they were with Timothy Neogene and doing a study group, and that they loved them very much. Parents were puzzled, but said nothing else. Had Team Phantom done the same? What of Caleb? Did the android have anyone to call, to worry over him if he left for too long?

"Promise me you'll be careful, Sweetheart." Wanda mumbled, nuzzling her husband as the fairies prepped themselves for luring out traps. Cosmo nuzzled back, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Hey, dumb luck's gotten me this far, right?" he murmured and framed her face in his hands, smiling at her, "Besides, the Windcutter isn't magic-based, so if I get stuck in a net, I can just cut my way out."

"You actually remembered that? That's a smart thing to say." the pink-haired fairy remarked in surprise. Her husband laughed, a strangely malicious undertone painted thinly on the sound.

"Surprising what I can come up with when I'm in the right mood." he returned.

"One, two, three...." Romi breathed out, twirling a pair of metallic fans around. They flicked light along their edges as they sliced into the air. "One, two, three...." She floated and danced gracefully before her godchild, the fans spinning in concert with her motions. It was rare for fairies to train in forms of battle beyond magical retaliation, but for any fairy assigned to a Dimmsdale child it was a must, especially since they all ignored the evacuation order Jorgen had given. Nullifiers canceled any attempts to use magic to drive off potential threats to godchildren, so non-magical weapons were beginning to appear in shops in Fairy World. Andromeda worked with the fans, finding them to be oddly comforting to her.

Apollo chose the path of the sword and often used his wand similarly to his scimitar. As long as he kept them in separate sheaths, the risk of him grabbing onto one or the other by mistake was low. When Trixie Tang restarted her old karate training routine, he trained alongside her, slicing up small wooden dummies with a custom forged blade made by gnomes. To see Cosmo and Wanda, the Banished Fairies, in action with their own Earth-forged battle wands was going to be awesome.

Dimmsdale Fairies had gained a reputation and class of their own in Fairy World; to be a Dimmsdale Fairy, one had to be strong in mind, body and will, and it helped to be a little crazy. Accepting the task of godparent to a child in that city was like voluntarily accepting a death sentence. There was always a chance that a fairy could die in Dimmsdale, but for the sake of protecting a child there, for the sake of ensuring innocence and carefree spirits lived on, some fairies continued taking that risk.

"Nothing on radar." Timmy muttered and looked back at his friends, swapping the detector for the Thunder Scepter that had been strapped to his backpack, "We're going to have to strike first to stir them up. Everyone ready?" The group of young teens were dressed in their magitech uniforms, solid black with silver trims and green strips on their right shoulders where Cosmo's hair was woven in, specialized gloves and boots for those who needed them, and silvery belts filled with gadgets and helpful devices from A.J. Timmy was the only one of them who still wore normal clothing, his usual stealth outfit, but the unmodified mythril suit was underneath those layers.

Team Phantom broke their huddle, Danny flying forward to take front position as Sam and Tucker hefted up strange-looking rifles in preparation. The halfa lifted his arms, then suddenly threw them out to the sides, startling the group as a ring of blue-white color appeared beside him, splitting in two and traveling opposite each other to reveal a second Phantom. Another ring bloomed into existence on the other side of the first ghost, revealing yet another Danny Phantom. Three ghostly heroes hovered above the ground where there had been only one beforehand.

"Training sessions really came in handy, huh, Danny?" Timmy remarked with a grin. The trio smiled in unison.

"Finally got the hang of this trick. I was tired of seeing it get used against me and not being able to at least match it for more than a split second." the first Phantom replied, "Three times the ghost powers, three times the support."

Caleb spun the giant fork at his side, then held it in both hands, a determined grin on his face. His wings were in perfect working order once more, but he chose to focus his power on magic instead of flight this time. Fleeing was not an option. The four fairies all twirled their respective weapons, the razor-edged fans, the svelte scimitar, the love-patterned Heartache Hammer, and the deadly reverse-bladed Windcutter Scythe, then nodded shortly.

Timmy gave them all one last cursory look, then took a deep breath before throwing out his hand at the wasteland that was the Dark Spire's ground zero.

_"Attaaaack!"_ he cried and the two teams raced out with feral yells to lay siege to the hatch doors.

Opening the hatchways was a little difficult, as the group split into teams of two in order to lift the panels of metal and look inside. Hundreds of inactive units were stored in their confines, and ranged from ground units to aerial units of all classes. Trixie grinned up at her fairy godfather.

"All right! Apollo! I wish these units would wake up!" she declared and the redhead grabbed onto his wand in his free hand, waving it to grant the wish. Power flicked on in every one of the anti-magic devices, red lights blooming into view as the fairy slid away the star-topped wand. "Heads up!" Trixie declared, racing away from the hatch door with Chester and Apollo. The units swarmed out after them, some rushing along the ground, others taking to the skies. Additional hatches opened as the anti-magic units signaled the main server that magical creatures were in the area.

One of the three Danny Phantoms streaked by, firing bursts of the Ghost Ray at anything that carried the multi-dish array that signified a nullifier. Teenagers scampered across the lot, splitting up into individuals that scattered the units even more. Caleb fired off a few quick spells, then laughed as he darted aside, luring a small pack of ground destroyers after him.

"Romi! I wish there were fireworks shooting in the sky!" Tootie called into a pair of Fenton Phones. The dark-haired fairy whipped out the wand and waved it. Another of the Phantom copies swept overhead, blasting several more nullifiers before the wish could be canceled and the sky lit up with colorful bursts of light.

"Cosmo! Wanda! I wish the Adventurer's Map could tell me how much time is left before the server overloads!" Timmy yelled out and the fairy couple spun back to back, wands held out and shining as the wish was granted. The computer on the brunet's arm came to life, displaying a countdown on a small LED screen built into the white metal. He glanced at it. "Everyone! Keep it up! The Adventurer's Map says we have to confuse the traps for another twelve minutes before the servers crash!"

_"Dude, how are we gonna keep this pace for twelve minutes?! It's chaos!"_ Chester called out through the earpieces. On his end, he slammed a padded shoulder against one of the flying destroyer units, wincing at the dull ache from the contact point. The sphere tumbled away, eye flickering wildly as several more trap units raced after him. "These things are maniacs! How bad does Crocker want to get his hands on Cosmo?!" the blonde added.

"Pretty badly. Cosmo's DNA is the only piece of hard evidence Crocker has that fairies exist, but without a whole fairy, no one's ever going to believe him." Wanda explained hurriedly, smashing the hammer head onto another trap and diving down away from a second, "On top of that, the old fool's probably still trying to harness fairy magic to take over the world, or some nonsense. We **can't** let him have Cosmo for that!"

Tootie murmured the incantation for _Photon_ and unleashed it on a destroyer unit, sending dozens more ground and air traps after her. She darted away from them, huffing for air as she made her way to the center of the battlefield, halfway from the Spire and the edge of the lot. Romi danced overhead, flicking her fans around her body to slice away the butterfly nets that threatened to engulf her. The young Goth spotted her mentor several yards away, a wildly elated expression on her face as she fired the Fenton Foamer after every nullifier unit she could find. On the battlefield, this was home for both of them. Tootie grinned; maybe she had a chance after all.

_"No offense, but Cosmo makes idiots look good. What's the trip if Crocker manages to make off with him? Worst that'll happen is he gets blown up from a wish being granted wrong."_ A.J. remarked dryly, staking out a position by the Dark Spire and sniping legs off of ground units from a distance. He checked his laser gun, then watched Sanjay lift two larger versions of the same gun and fire them repeatedly into the air, knocking down several nullifiers in rapid-fire sequence. "Sanjay's got game... for a weirdo." he remarked to himself in surprise.

"Not sure myself. I guess Wanda's got a better idea of it but I'm in the dark." Timmy admitted between gasps for air. A number of fairy traps flew after him, nets open for capture. "Oh, you stupid traps! Get off my tail! It's just hair, for the love of God!" he griped, pausing for a moment to sweep at one with the Thunder Scepter. A burst of electrical output flashed and the device fell to the ground, fried. Timmy darted off to avoid the remaining traps and looked at his armband again, "Sheesh! We still have ten minutes to go!"

"Oh, geez! Don't tell me that **that** rumor is actually true, Wanda!" Apollo cried in alarm and looked up higher towards the upper levels of the battlefield.

_"'Fraid so, kid. Looks like he might actually use part of it now."_ the older fairy sighed in a mix of exasperation and resignation through the Phones.

Cosmo floated high above the group, clutching his normal wand in one hand as the Windcutter remained strapped to his back. He looked out at the cloud of traps and destroyer units that spun around him, sending off swarms of signals to the server control system as they debated over how best to attempt a capture. Tilting his head in mild confusion, the green-haired fairy stuck his thumb in his mouth, sucking on it thoughtfully. Several units broke away from the cloud and zipped straight at him, nets billowing in the wind as they rushed forward. Cosmo yelped and flipped in the air, diving down towards the asphalt below. The cloud dove after him in a collective, a silver swarm of wingless insects that hunted for the dapper little fairy.

Apollo and Romi lifted their gazes in horror, watching him suddenly pull up and lead the mass of silver back into the skies, spinning tightly as the gold star of the wand in his hand shimmered and formed a spiraling ribbon of magic around him. The ribbon wound after him, creating a strange green corkscrew that drilled through the air. And yet, he seemed to be slowing down, the swarm of units quickly advancing and surrounding the green-haired fairy.

"They're gonna get him!" Romi screamed.

_"There it goes. Oh, Cosmo, doing that is only going to make the Fairy Academy want you even more!"_ Wanda sighed again.

The cloud of silver completely engulfed her husband, then suddenly exploded outward in a storm of fire and metal, leaving the ribbon of green winding wildly about the fairy in the center of the inferno. The younger fairies flew back in shock, watching the rain of debris crash down onto a section of the city block that had been already deemed abandoned completely. High above the mad dashing of young heroes below him, Cosmo broke into a grin, teeth bared almost savagely.

"That was fun." he murmured, "Good practice. Now, give me _more_...."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Remy gazed out at the city, fuming at the idea of having an immortal rival. It wasn't fair. It was bad enough competing with someone who died and was elevated to saintly status because a whole bloody city suddenly realized he was really _that_ important to them. But this? Butting heads with someone who **could not die** no matter what got thrown at him? That was God giving him hell for starting the whole mess to begin with.

Juandissimo sat on the balcony rail, brushing his hair back carefully as he peered into a mirror. He had to look good, had to look _sexy_. Wanda was out there, somewhere, and completely available to him now that his biggest competition was out of the way. Perhaps Fairy World had come to its senses, realized what a threat Cosmo truly posed, and wisely disposed of the idiot. For ages he could only hope for that and now he knew... dreams really _did_ come true. At least, for him. Too bad the same couldn't be said for Remy. He glanced up at his godchild. The blonde huffed once, a mug of cocoa in one hand as he glared at the city. If only he knew. If he realized that the boy he was facing in this war over Dimmsdale was the same Timmy Turner that had perished so long ago, Juandissimo was fairly sure Remy would lose his mind. After all, Death was supposed to instantly strip someone of all they had, all they possessed, not grant them even more power than before and immunity to anything that dared to take that power from them.

"What the hell is that?" Remy suddenly asked, tilting his head at the explosions of light in the distance, "Are those fireworks? Are these buffoons setting off fireworks for that pink-hatted peasant?!" He gripped the railing, grinding his teeth together. "Those ungrateful beggars! What must I do to become the Heart of Dimmsdale?!" he snapped and shot a glare at the Latino fairy, "Juandissimo! I wish those fireworks would fizzle out!" Juandissimo held out his wand and posed, waving it as his shirt ripped open again. The wand went limp and produced a dud. Both boy and fairy blinked as the shirt was replaced.

"That is odd." the Latino muttered and summoned up his copy of El Rules for reading, "There is nothing here to say I cannot wish away fireworks, and they are not directly related to Timmy Turner, Timothy Neogene, or the Heart of Dimmsdale in any way."

"Then what happened?" Remy demanded. Juandissimo closed the book, puzzled, then blinked in realization.

"A nullifier! It must have canceled the wish!" he blurted out to the blonde, "Wherever those fireworks are being set off, it is very close to a strong nullifier!" Remy stared at him for a few moments, baffled by the answer. Who in their right minds would be setting off fireworks and bottle rockets near a...?

"The Dark Spire!" he finally cried in understanding, "Those things are going off near one of my Dark Spires!" An explosion ripped into the night sky almost immediately after he finished and both he and Juandissimo looked towards it in shock. "Someone's attacking my Spire!" the blonde yelled in alarm, "Quickly! I wish we were at the Spire where those explosions are coming from without landing in the nullifier field!" For a moment, the Latino didn't react, too astonished by the blast to even hear what the boy had said. "Juandissimo!"

"Oh! Yes, of course, my less-sexy-than-me friend!" the fairy exclaimed and waved the wand to grant the wish. It actually worked that time and in a blast of smoke, he and the boy millionaire vanished from the balcony.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Trixie punched at one of the units that came at her, grinning as the thick metal plates covering her knuckles and forearms added extra power to her blows. The gauntlets had been specially made for her fighting style, right down to the small bars of iron in her grips that made every punch land forcefully. The explosion overhead caught everyone's attentions for a few seconds. One of the Danny Phantom copies was hit by falling debris and vanished in a burst of white smoke.

_"Damn! Lost one of the duplicates! How many nullifiers left?!"_ the original Phantom called out.

_"Down to about three dozen! Keep it up! Server overload in seven minutes!"_ Timothy's voice ordered, _"Try not to destroy too many of these things! We need them to just send signals about where you are and what you're doing!"_

"It would be easier if they didn't keep trying to kill us when they reach us!" Trixie yelled in frustration and cried painfully as one of the units smashed into her from behind, sending her tumbling across the concrete. She finally came to a stop, lying half-curled and coughing as additional ground units began to close in on her. "Oww...." she moaned and pushed herself up, flicking her hair back, "My makeup... and my hair....!" The Asian looked around dazedly, then gasped, snapping back to alertness at the sight of so many capture and destroyer devices stepping towards her. "Timothy! Help! I'm surrounded!" she cried into the Fenton Phones.

"I've got a few problems of my own! Can somebody get to her?!" the brunet exclaimed, sliding across the concrete under a group of aerial units that swooped in low to knock him over. The air buzzed with the sounds of hundreds of the machinations swarming over the field.

_"Hey, Tricks! Need a hand?!"_ Chester's voice called out cheerfully. Trixie looked around wildly, confused, then spotted the blonde Other teaming up with Elmer to muscle through the group of anti-magic units.

"Coming through!" Elmer declared, lifting one unit to smash down onto another. Chester darted past him and scooped up the raven-haired Popular, uttering the faintest of startled squeaks. "We got her?!" the stocky teen called back, heavy gloves clenched into fists for another powerful blow.

"Yeah! Clear the way!" Chester answered quickly, eyes wide as he leaped back from the lunging machines, "I don't think this suit can keep a bunch of these mecha-mutts from turning my legs into midnight snacks!" Elmer nodded and set to work smashing and hurling units, gouging a new path for the three of them. Trixie stared around herself with wide eyes, arms flying up around the blonde's neck instinctively. He squeaked again; she briefly wondered why he was so panicky about her.

_"Chester! How are things on your end?! Wanda, Cosmo! Status!"_ Timothy called out quickly, _"Trixie! Are you all right?! Tootie! Keep it up; you've got them going hot!"_

"We're all good here, but we could use some extra punch to get out of here! The units tailing Elmer and me are ganging up with the ones that chased Tricks!" Chester replied hurriedly, racing alongside the russet-haired boy as he mentally prayed that whatever miracle prevented his ill reaction to girls would happen again.

_"Got a big batch of traps coming after me! Long as they don't start trying to anticipate my moves, I'll do fine!"_ Wanda's voice reported in a breathless rush.

_"Look! I'm wanted by so many shiny friends! I feel so **loved**!"_ Cosmo laughed brightly, streaking above the field with the surviving Danny copy closing in alongside him for added protection.

The ground was littered with broken parts from units of all types. Trixie risked a look behind Chester as the blonde ran on. Anti-magic devices seemed to blanket the field, barreling after them with every ounce of power they possessed. She screamed in fright and shut her eyes.

"Apollo!" she yelled into the Phones, "I wish those things weren't so close!"

_"Nullifier, Trixie! I can't grant it! Aahhh! Too... close!"_ the redhead cried in pain and tumbled through the air, a swarm of units coming down after him.

"Apollo!" the girl screamed again, twisting around to try to locate her fairy godfather. Chester struggled to keep her still, then halted abruptly as a burst of smoke erupted not far ahead of them. Elmer stopped short beside him and panted, clenching his fists in preparation for an attack.

"The hell?!" the blonde cried in alarm, previous worries forgotten with the new turn of events. Trixie turned her head to see what happened and screamed again, tightening her hold on her rescuer further. The cloud of smoke dissipated, revealing Remy and Juandissimo standing on the battlefield. The boy millionaire took in the sight of them and frowned deeply.

"So now you're whoring yourself out to that redneck as well? Figures." he growled and pointed at them, "You three are going to pay for this ridiculous assault on **my** beautiful towers!" Chester set Trixie down and stepped forward, pounding one fist into his open palm.

"Not before I make you pay up for insulting my friends!" he challenged, "Come on, Fancy Pants! I'm gonna turn you into road-kill!" Remy laughed disdainfully, turning his nose up at the black-uniformed blonde taking up a stance before him.

"Oh, please! Spare me your trailer trash speech. Why should I sully my hands with you when I can have my fairy do whatever I wish with you?" he returned haughtily.

"Probably 'cause you're too weak to do it yourself." Chester retaliated angrily, "You whine and cry and hide behind your fairy like a mama's boy! And you want to take Timmy's place as the Heart of Dimmsdale? Screw you!" Remy stomped his foot down in a childlike fit.

"How dare you call me that! And how dare you mention that vile name in my presence!" he fumed. Chester laughed shortly, fists held up for a brawl.

"What? Timmy? Why shouldn't I say his name? He's _only_ been my best friend since forever!" he exclaimed, "It's a free country; I'll say whatever I want, so I'm just gonna keep saying it! Timmy, Timmy, Timmy!"

"Chester! The units are almost on us!" Elmer yelled, "We don't have time for this! We gotta keep moving!"

"Apollo! I wish the units following us were on the other side of the Spire!" Trixie yelled.

Moments after his response to Trixie's first wish, the fairy continued struggling to reorient himself despite the sudden drain of magical energy. He could make out several fairy traps aligning their nets and swooping in for the capture. He shut his eyes, waved his sword around and prayed for a miracle. He got close.

"Back off!" Cosmo snapped suddenly and Apollo opened his eyes in time to see the older godfather shoot between him and the units, Windcutter in both hands. In a blur of black, silver and white, the scythe was whipped about before him and nearly invisible blades of air sliced through the butterfly nets. The capture units swerved and spiraled away in retreat. Catching himself in mid-air, Apollo straightened himself out and gasped in surprise. The other fairy turned and held out his wand, firing a beam of magic at him. Startled, Apollo uttered another yelp, then looked down at himself in confusion. "That's all I can give as a boost! Watch your back!" Cosmo ordered in an oddly commanding tone and shot skyward to lead his own cloud of units away.

"Geez! What happened to being Mr. Goofy and Stupid?!" Apollo exclaimed and winced as he heard Trixie make another wish in a panic, "I'm on it!" He waved his own wand to grant it, then scanned the field in search of his godchild. There! Standing with Chester and Elmer... and Remy and Juandissimo! "Holy mother of Titania! Remy's here!" he cried in alarm.

_"What?!" _Timothy yelled in shock. Wanda and Cosmo both froze, a storm of mixed emotions raging through both fairies. _"Wanda! Get back to me! NOW! Cosmo! Don't reveal yourself! Stay on the upper levels of the battlefield! I'll get him out of here! Keep going! We only have five minutes left till the servers overload!"_

Team Phantom looked at each other warily as they finished the last of the nullifiers. This was quickly getting out of hand. Who was Remy and why was his appearance such a bad thing? Sam touched fingertips to the Fenton Phones and contacted her apprentice.

_"Don't get near him! Don't let him see you! Remy is the guy who got all these towers built and he's got a fairy godparent of his own!"_ Tootie yelled back, _"Timothy and Danny might be immune to a fairy's magic, but not the rest of us! Stay back! I'm gonna try to get to him for backup!"_

"Danny!" Sam yelled out and threw her arm aside to point away from the group, "Get to Timmy! Wish war about to start!" The phantom looked down at her from above, then shot away in a blur of white and black.

The battle on the field just got a whole new twist thrown in.


	15. Chapter 15

15

Two blondes faced each other on the war-torn concrete that was the site of the latest assault on the third Spire. On one side, Remy Buxaplenty, boy millionaire and fairy godchild of Juandissimo Magnifico, with all the magic the fairy possessed at his disposal. On the other side, Chester McBadbat, childhood best friend of Timmy Turner and current leader of the Others, with only a magitech mythril body-suit and street-honed brawling skills to his name.

"You say that damnable name in front of me once more and I'll show you what I **can** do." Remy hissed dangerously.

"Timmy Turner, the one **true** Heart of Dimmsdale." Chester returned with a grim smile, "He who was loved by all, missed by all, and will forever stand as the most powerful and influential kid in this town! And no amount of wishes from you will ever change that!" Remy shrieked in a rage and lunged for the other blonde. Chester stepped aside and lashed out, slamming his fist into the teen's back and sending him sprawling onto the ground. Trixie yelled out in victory, thrusting her own fist into the air.

"Way to go, Chester!" she cried, "Hit him again for me!"

"Elmer! What are you doing? Get her out of here!" the blonde ordered loudly, stepping carefully around Remy as he got to his feet slowly, glaring up at him. Juandissimo waved his wand and restored the boy's suit to pristine condition. Elmer gulped and nodded, grabbing Trixie's hand and hurrying away despite her loud protests.

"How dare you strike your better!" Remy spat in a fury, clenching his hands into fists. Chester moved on his feet, sniffing in disdain and shaking his head.

"My 'better'? Peh! You're the dirt beneath **my** shoes, buddy; that's how low you are in this city's Popularity chart now." he growled, "You're **still** getting your fairy to clean you up and all you did was fall down. Dude, you're such a pussy!" Another lunge and he sidestepped that one as well, this time moving forward and using both his momentum and Remy's own to deliver a solid punch to the millionaire's gut. The teen doubled over and wheezed painfully, earning a wince from Juandissimo as he lifted his wand to cast another burst of healing magic.

Remy held out a hand in a motion to stop him and the Latino froze in surprise, taking on an uncertain expression as his godchild straightened and rubbed the back of his hand against his mouth. Refusing a godparent's aid? This was new for Remy in Juandissimo's thinking. The richest Popular in Dimmsdale never refused aid from him before. Was he actually going to go into a fistfight _without_ magical interference?

"I'll have you know, you wretched piece of backwoods garbage," Remy growled as he matched stances with the opposing blonde, "that I took boxing lessons from the finest athletes money could buy!" Chester huffed, blowing hair out of his face as he eyed the stance Remy took on.

"So? Those guys probably took it easy on you 'cuz of your money. I learned to brawl in order to keep punks like you from picking on my friends and Toots." he returned harshly, "And they let me have it with all they had, so I've got a tough hide covering my ass. Let's see what your lady-fingers can do, Moneybags."

The two dove for each other with feral yells, exchanging blows almost immediately. Remy stumbled back in a daze, recovering quickly from the slam to his collarbone. Chester leaped back, using the force of the punch to his ribs to gain distance and reassess the field. He'd been half-right; Remy wasn't used to unhindered punches, but he could recover from one fast. And though his punches were indeed soft, they were still good blows. At least he knew how to hold his fist together. They ran at each other a second time, yelling intelligibly as punches and kicks were thrown so fast they seemed to blur.

Personal trainers taught Remy how to block and dodge attacks. As long as he kept his cool, the teen millionaire could avoid many of his opponent's blows, tossing in several of his own in retaliation. He managed a fierce grin. He'd remind this dog of his place in the social ladder. S-List, yeah, right.

Street-fights were vicious in their teachings, and only by taming some of the strikes and maneuvers could Chester avoid dealing near-fatal blows. But this bag of hot air was asking for them. He sidestepped and ducked his fair share of the other kid's punches, grinning as each one that actually landed was dulled immensely by the armor of the magitech suit.

The two broke apart suddenly, gasping for air as they paused to recollect themselves and regain strength. Juandissimo cringed and shook his head at the sight of his godchild.

"Remy, my little _amigo_, you are looking far less sexy than usual with each passing second." he pointed out and looked over at the relatively untouched Chester, "I believe he's wearing that outfit for a reason. Not only does it highly accent those green eyes of his, but the armored gloves and shoulders are giving him a distinct advantage."

"Cheating bastard!" Remy spat out amidst cracked teeth and bleeding lips. The other blonde grinned, one cheek beginning to darken from a well-placed bash on the young millionaire's part.

"Hey, man. This suit ain't magic; just really high quality stuff." Chester snickered and motioned to him with one hand, "Come on, piss-head; I missed a spot right between those beady eyes."

* * *

Timmy raced over the concrete battlefield with Wanda flying at his side. It was all sheer insanity! Remy actually showed up at the site of the assault? He glanced at the armband. Three minutes; was this thing actually calculating time properly?

"I bet that blast earlier caught his attention!" Timmy panted out, clutching his staff closer to his body, "I'd be surprised if half of Dimmsdale isn't up and trying to figure out what the heck that was!"

_"Let go of me, you brute! Chester needs magic backup! Remy's gonna cheat, I know it! He always cheats!"_ Trixie snapped bitingly over the Fenton Phones.

_"You don't have to be so gripey! Chester wanted you away from the fight and I'm gonna do what he says!"_ Elmer shot back in complaint, _"If you don't like it, take it up with him after this mess is over!"_

"Trixie! You're closest to Chester, right? I've still got units tailing me, but I'll be there with him in another minute! Elmer! Forget her and get back to distracting the anti-magic devices!" Timmy called over the communicators, "Trixie! Wish yourself back to Chester and I'll meet you there!"

_"Got it! Apollo! I wish I was back with Chester!"_ the Asian declared.

"Why not do the same, Timmy?" Wanda asked her godchild in confusion.

"I'm supposed to be immune to fairy magic, remember?" the young immortal huffed, "If I wish us to Chester, Remy's gonna wonder why your magic affects me and not Juandissimo's. Remy's a snob, yeah, but he's not stupid." He glanced over his shoulder. "Speaking of wishes, I wish those things would find another target already!" he yelled as the fairy traps zoomed after him. Wanda waved her wand and sent the units scattering after the nearest source of magic, Caleb. The android yelled in sudden anger, then raced off to keep them away.

"He didn't look happy about that." the fairy remarked with a slight cringe.

"He'll live. I've gotta help Chester!" Timmy cried, "He's still my best friend, human-wise!" He looked up in surprise as a shadow passed over him and Danny grinned down at the brunet.

"Phantom Taxi! This one's on the house!" his cousin laughed and picked him up, ghost tail streaming behind him as he flew off, "Let's go! We've got a true-blue hero to help!"

* * *

Master Control Spire~

Alarms rang as Crocker tapped furiously at his keyboard, a smile grander than any he thought he could ever have again spread across his face. Beautiful! Just beautiful! The new Timmy had not let him down at all! He'd returned with a vengeance, and with an army of allies to support him. Rather than try to outwit the booby traps within the Dark Spire, the teenager had learned of the Spire's greatest weakness and was now exploiting it like mad.

Fairies, fairies, fairies! The server control system was racing with data, burning hotter and hotter the more information was being dumped into its memory faster than could be processed, stored or sent to Master Control. There seemed to be close to a dozen fairies all swarming the tower, and the nullifiers had all been destroyed, leaving only the main nullification generator near the top of the Spire in active duty, and none of those fairies was stupid enough to go that high.

But the reports flooding into his computer were strange. It insisted that a single fairy, the one whose DNA he'd had a sample of since his youth, was being targeted in multiple places simultaneously. An impossibility, or a trick of magic? Either way, it was proof that something deliciously wonderful was happening out there and the Spire would soon become a loss. No matter, no matter. If a fairy was powerful enough to split its magic like that and cause simultaneous chaos, then surely it had enough magic to grant the wish that would relieve him of his guilty conscience forever! To hell with the Spire; he wanted that fairy!

* * *

Romi's fans sliced through several more butterfly nets, helping her avoid capture only narrowly. The remainder of the capture units swerved to dodge her, then spiraled away in a cloud of spherical silver light. She gasped for air, blinking up at them. Strange, but hey, if they were gonna lay off of her for a while, she couldn't complain. Besides, she thought to herself as she took up another graceful stance, fans flared above her head and at her side, those destroyers looked like they were going to take their place pretty quickly anyway...

* * *

Sanjay yelped in sudden surprise as one of the capture units actually hooked its net over his head. Flipping back onto the ground from the force of the attempted capture, he threw his arms up and squeezed the triggers of the laser guns, sending a spray of laser-fire into the night sky. The second Danny Phantom copy cried out in sudden shock from a hit and vanished instantly.

_"Hey! Watch it! You almost got me!"_ Cosmo yelled down through the Fenton Phones.

"Many apologies, little one! The capture units are becoming far more hostile!" Sanjay returned and rolled aside from several more spheres slamming down after him. Jumping to his feet, he fired off several more rounds, disabling the legs of several ground capture units, the nets on the fronts of their oval bodies open for future attempted captures. "How much longer before the server shuts down?" he called out and ran from several more of the fast-moving units.

_"Just under three minutes! Danny! Fly faster!"_ Timothy's voice yelled out.

* * *

Tootie held out the Laser Blade, chanting the incantation for _Photon_ once more. She was breathless, tiring quickly, and there wasn't much mana left in her surroundings for the spells. But her magitech suit had strands of Cosmo's hair woven in, as per Timmy's wish, so units kept coming after her in waves. She unleashed the spell, watched one of the ground-based 'Catcher' devices explode in a burst of golden light.

"I can't keep this up...! We've used up too much mana here!" Tootie cried into her Fenton Phones, "There's not enough for me to keep using _Photon_!" Her muscles ached from running, but she turned and fled anyway, limbs flailing almost uselessly as she tried to put distance between herself and the squadron of mechanical drones trailing her. Trying to get to Timmy was going to be harder than she thought.

A.J. sniped off several more units, then looked up in surprise when he felt an ominous chill run over him. A swarm of aerial capture units floated over him, nets out and ready. He blinked and they collectively swooped down, swinging the butterfly nets in a veritable tornado of fine mesh and metal.

"Yaaah! Hostile units! Run!" he shrieked in a panic, racing away from the Spire and out into the battlefield. He nearly ran into Elmer as the stockier boy ran from his own fleet of suddenly super-aggressive capture devices.

"Gotten worse for you too?" Elmer exclaimed as the two of them sprinted side by side for safety.

"Yeah! I don't get it! What changed the commands? The server system should be too overwhelmed by data to do something like that!" A.J. cried in alarm, "There's something else about these things that wasn't in those reports Trixie stole!"

"We gotta get to her and Chester! They've got suits with the DNA strands on them too!" Elmer blurted out, eyes wide, "They could get jumped by these things any second now!" The two boys dashed aside, changing direction suddenly enough to throw off the cloud of units for a short moment.

"Then we can't go to them! We'll just end up leading our portable pestilence to them!" the super-genius of the Others yelled back, "Come on! We've only got a couple more minutes to go!"

Cosmo took his trail of units higher into the skyline of Dimmsdale, wings beating furiously as he pulled away from the Spire. Timmy said to keep away from them; fine, he'd do as his godchild said, no matter the fact he'd like nothing more than to rip Juandissimo apart for coming onto Wanda like that. He glanced over his shoulder, spotted the destroyer units with their assorted blades and maces suddenly drop out of the chase, racing back to the Dark Spire, and looked puzzled. What was going on?

He swerved in mid-flight, spiraled down towards the streets of the downtown region of the city, then shot behind a building for cover. Back pressed to the wall, chest heaving for air, he struggled to get his thoughts together. It wasn't easy being the biggest idiot in, or was that out now?, Fairy World; anything that resembled coherent thought trying to bring itself into his mind was immediately scattered to the winds by idle fantasies and the distracting elevator music that played through his head at odd times.

"Come on! Focus for once in your life, you idiot!" he berated himself, knocking on the sides of his head with his knuckles, "What's changed? What **happened**?" No time to puzzle over that; the units found him, nets swinging around for him. Cosmo yelped and shot off once again, racing past skyscrapers whose hundreds of mirrored windows reflected the chase for him. He watched it, fascinated. He gave it a little wave, smiled slightly as his reflection waved back, then cried in shock as that same reflection seemed to darken and recede. Banking towards one building, never mind that the memory of the units tailing him was screaming at him from the back of his mind, Cosmo tried to figure out what was wrong with the mirror.

The reflection was dark and faint, a blurb of black on the silvery face of the mirror. He put his hand to it, felt the cold surface of the window, and tilted his head. Was this really what he looked like? Cosmo moved his palm along the surface, watching his reflection do the same. He pulled his hand away, looked down at it in confusion. It didn't look like the reflection, but the mirror was saying that this was him. Peach-colored hand, white cuff and sleeve of his dress shirt, shiny gold cuff link... his arm looked normal, so why was it weird in the mirror?

Elevator music.

"Damn it! Let me **think**!" Cosmo yelled in sudden fury, grabbing his head in both hands, "I want to think! I want to know why this is happening!" He shut his eyes, shrieked once, then opened them again, staring at the mirrored window. Well, that seemed to have fixed it; his reflection was perfectly normal now. Or as normal as it could get with a fairy floating before it on the verge of tearing his hair out and a swarm of flying capture units rushing in on him. He sighed resignedly and pressed his forehead to the cool glass, closing his eyes. His wings were tired, he was tired; Timmy said to keep them signaling for just a little longer, but his strength was waning quickly. Too many passes by nullifiers early in the battle, too many close calls trying to keep an eye on both Wanda and Timmy. He chuckled softly.

"Heh. _Sunu..._" he murmured and braced for the impact of the cloud of capture units.

Glass shattered inward in an explosion as the aerial fairy traps swarmed and buzzed into the office building. Their target flitted about, spinning and twirling about in the air to avoid their nets. Cosmo flew backwards, watching the movements of units to try guessing their next sweep. Eyes darting from sphere to sphere as he zipped back and forth, he tried his best to stay out of reach. Lights were coming on, making things easier but also alerting him to the knowledge that there were humans in the building.

"Missed! Missed! Missed!" he taunted breathlessly, "Come on, come on!" Cosmo needed out, badly. This office was far too confined for him and he couldn't risk being seen by other humans. He looked around frantically, searching for the broken window. If he could reach that, he was free. Pulling his wand into play, he conjured up random items to slow down the units. Why hadn't he thought of _that_ earlier?

"Because I'm the idiot, **that's** why!" he growled angrily, tossing a vase of flowers into the waiting net of one unit. He halted his wings, dropped straight down onto his knees on the carpet and watched the swarm fly over him blindly. "Exploding daisies!" he exclaimed and the vase detonated, ripping through a majority of the units like small atomic blast. A sudden sharp pain tore through Cosmo's back, the force of the explosion sending him tumbling forward across the floor.

_"Cosmo! Where are you? Timmy needs our help! Everyone's scattered like crazy and we've got huge trouble from Remy!"_ Wanda's voice yelled at him through the Fenton Phones, a welcome respite from the quickly souring situation. The fairy scrambled under a desk and huddled there, looking back over his shoulder to see what was causing that pain from earlier.

A shard of glass, small to a human but dagger-like to a fairy, was buried in him, just below his right shoulder. Even worse, it tore through his right wing, the gossamer torn asunder by the bit of shrapnel. Moving that arm hurt, and it was hard to breathe. Cosmo glanced down at the Reverse Doll hanging from his neck; 'Pete', as he affectionately called it. Well, it was still there, so the injury wasn't fatal. It was, however, a Very Bad Thing. A ruined wing meant no flying, which meant little hope of escape.

And even that hope was snatched away, as he looked up in terror at one of the surviving capture units zooming in at him with its net at the ready.

* * *

Melee combat of a degree that Chester knew was far beyond what Remy knew and understood. And it didn't help that the other blonde was more skilled at it, though he would never admit to that. The teen millionaire got to his feet once again, suit torn and bedraggled, bruised and bloodied and battered from being tossed about. So much for putting the dog in his place.

"That's it? Come **on**! The crippled homeless guy down the street from my place can hit better than you!" Chester snapped at him. This guy was the same dude who gave Timmy hell for so long? Geez, the kid should have called him in sooner, give the rich brat some beatings to get him to lay off. Well, too late for that now, but at least he got in some good wallops for Timmy's sake.

It was kind of weird; when he was ten, he never imagined for a minute that this was what his life was going to be involved in. This was Dimmsdale, for Pete's sake! Crap like this happened in big cities! New York City, Metropolis, hell even that weirdo Townsville place in the middle of the Midwest; **they** had crazy villains and super-heroes to deal with there! What was a redneck in an armored surfer's-suit compared to that?

"Juandissimo! I wish I wasn't hurt!" Remy wheezed through a mouthful of broken teeth.

"Pussy." Chester snorted. Figures. Richie over there couldn't take a decent punishment without whining to his fairy about it. He watched the Latino floating nearby wave his wand and restore Remy to perfect condition. The young millionaire ran his tongue over his teeth to check them, then smiled smugly at the other blonde.

"Well, that was certainly an _experience_." he remarked coolly, "But after much consideration, I believe that fair fighting was never really my cup of tea. After all, I have a fairy and you don't. Why should it be up to me to level the playing field?" He pointed at him and raised his voice louder. "Juandissimo! I wish that black armor of his was gone!" he ordered and the fairy waved his wand again.

Chester looked down at himself in shock as the black mythril-threaded body-suit just suddenly poofed away in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving him dressed only in his usual black shirt, blue jeans and tattered army jacket. Not even the silver belt with all of the gadgets and weapons A.J. made for the uniforms was left behind! Completely defenseless, with only his personal fighting skills and normal strength left to him, his situation had made an abrupt change for the worse.

"Wow. Tricks was right; these things definitely need something to keep 'em from getting wished away." he remarked blandly, then looked up at Remy's grinning face, "Okay, fine. So I don't have my armor anymore. Big whoop. I can still hand you your ass without it!"

A burst of red smoke billowed nearby and both boys looked over in surprise at Trixie and Apollo appearing at the scene. The Asian looked fiercely determined, fists held up in mock boxing form.

"All right, Remy! I'm gonna take a piece of you out for...!" she began and blinked in surprise, "Hey! You're not all beat up like you were a while ago! And Chester! What happened to your suit?"

"The sign of a sexy woman; all beauty, no brain." Juandissimo purred and struck a pose to show off his pecs, snapping his shirt off once more. A beam of magic hit his gut, knocking him out of the air. Apollo held his wand out, an impassive look on his face.

"You shut up. Nobody asked for your opinion." he grumbled. Remy glared up at him, then back at his fairy.

"Juandissimo! Get up!" he snapped and watched the Latino flutter up into the air. He waited impatiently while the fairy looked himself over, then struck another pose as a show of good health. "Good. I wish those units Crocker said were stuck on Mars were brought down here!"

"What the hell?" Chester exclaimed.

"Oh no! Those aren't connected to _this_ Spire's control system!" Trixie cried in alarm as Danny Phantom flew in and dropped off Timothy.

"What the heck is-?" the brunet began and blinked at Juandissimo waving his wand. A huge blast of purple smoke flooded the field and, when it cleared, revealed the entire squadron of three hundred destroyers, covered in red dust. "Hey! These are the units that were sent to Mars!" Timothy exclaimed in shock. Remy pointed at him with a triumphant laugh.

"Hah! I knew it! You **are** a fairy!" he crowed.

"Ugh! You stupid moron! I am **not**! I told Tootie to wish them all away!" the young immortal snapped back. Remy only laughed again.

"You pathetic fools! You can't destroy my beautiful Dark Spire! Those booby traps inside the tower keep you from even attempting a bomb run!" he declared, "Look at you all! Running around out here like the vermin you are!" He looked up at his fairy. "Juandissimo! I wish everyone here who has that black armor lost it on the spot! Smasher-class ground units! Attack!" Remy commanded. The machinations remained motionless for a few moments, picking up signals from their respective Spire, then made sudden lunges for the teens in their midst.

"Wanda! Now!" Timothy cried, slamming the lightning sphere of the Thunder Scepter onto the units as rapidly as he could. Remy stared at him, then looked up as the pink-haired fairy swooped down and grabbed onto the Latino's wrists, spinning him around in the air.

"Dance with me, Juandissimo! Show me all your wonderful moves!" Wanda cooed and of course Remy's fairy godfather couldn't refuse that request, completely ignoring the wish.

"Oh, you stupid, sex-crazed idiot." the young millionaire grumbled and shot a glare at the group of teenagers plowing into the destroyers, the ghost overhead firing multiple bursts of green light at them to blow apart whole groups of the units.

Trixie slammed her fists into as many as she could, knocking them down until Timothy could dart in and keep them down with the electric powers of his staff. Chester danced and dodged the ground units, yelping each time one came close to grazing him. Without the protection of the body-suit, he was easy pickings for them!

"Apollo! I wish these units were back on Mars!" Trixie yelled out, suddenly darting between him and a unit that lunged for the blonde. She thrust her fist out, hitting it dead on and denting the lower jaw of the ground destroyer. The fairy spun in the air with both sword and wand, granting the wish as he lashed out at leaping units. In a blast of red smoke, the dust-covered Smashers were sent away once more. Chester looked around in surprise, then turned a smile on the Asian.

"Hey! Thanks!" he exclaimed brightly, "I've never been rescued by a girl before! Well, not counting that time in Mr. Moneybags' mansion 'cause it wasn't actually you that got me loose; you were running circles around Remy there to keep him distracted and all..." He stopped suddenly, blinked, then rubbed his head sheepishly. "I rambled, didn't I?" he asked and Trixie laughed, shaking her head.

"For an Other, you're not half-bad." she told him, "I think you'll do better as a Popular, though."

"Nah. Other's what I was, Other's what I am, Other's what I'll be." the blonde remarked, "After all, Timmy was an Other, too." There was a sudden infuriated shriek and the group turned in collective alarm as Remy lunged for Apollo, snatching the small sword from the fairy. Juandissimo looked away only briefly from Wanda to see what his godchild was yelling about, then froze in shock at the sight of him grabbing the fairy's scimitar.

"Remy? What are you doing?" he exclaimed in horror, releasing the pink-haired fairy to wave his arms excitedly. Wanda flew back and immediately turned to her Fenton Phones, calling out for her husband.

"Always with that buck-toothed brat! Always, always, _always!_" Remy screamed in blind rage as the group spun around to face him in shock, "Be an Other, you filthy hick! In the Otherworld!" He hurled the sword at the unarmed blonde with a wordless shriek, ignoring the mortified cries that surrounded him.

It seemed as unreal as the day Timmy fell from the jungle gym, the sight of Chester slumping back against Trixie Tang, her fairy's small scimitar buried to the hilt in his body, bringing the both of them down to the concrete. The bejeweled hilt seemed to sparkle brighter against the black of the blonde's shirt. Juandissimo froze, appalled by what his godchild had just done. Trixie stared down at the little sword and the gasping teen in her arms, then lifted wide eyes to Remy.

"Murderer..." she whispered and the server control system high overhead, on the upper levels of the Dark Spire, finally exploded from the critical overload of data.


	16. Chapter 16

16

"Chester!" Timmy cried, paling at the sight of his best friend lying on the war-torn concrete with a sword run through him. The blonde struggled to breathe, fighting for each pained gasp of air. The countdown on his armband had expired; the server control system had died, along with the hundreds, maybe thousands, of anti-magic units under its command. The sounds of large metal objects raining down on the lot and the streets of Dimmsdale seemed far away. Timmy turned his attention slowly towards the other blonde standing nearby. Remy only looked up at the tower in confusion.

"What the bloody hell was that sound? What's going on? What did you buffoons do to my beautiful Dark Spire?" he demanded of them, then blinked at the brunet, "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Danny knelt by Trixie, studying the injury with the cold detachment of a ghost's mind. The blade was buried deeply, but true to form, Chester was a fighter, unwilling to let even a fairy's weapon keep him from life. His eyes were shut tightly, one hand clutching the hilt but for what reason the phantom could only guess. Was he trying to pull it out? That might not be the best idea; the sword could be the only thing keeping him from bleeding to death, and Danny couldn't risk bestowing the curse of immortality again should the blonde cross over. Trixie was sobbing bitterly, head bent and dark hair hiding her face from view. Apollo fluttered by her, looking lost and guilty; it was, after all, **his** sword that was stealing away Chester's life bit by bit.

A flare of pink light erupted near them and both ghost and fairy lifted their heads to see what was happening. Timmy walked between them and the boy millionaire, surrounded by flames of deep red and pale pink, intermittently shot through with black and white. His attention was not on them, but on the teen who dared to bring harm to one of his childhood friends.

"Timmy, don't let anger or sorrow control you." Danny warned under his breath, "If you let that bleed through your magic, your power, worse things will happen. Get your focus back!" Did the brunet even hear him? He didn't even seem to know they were back there anymore.

_"You...!"_ Timmy hissed in a fury, standing before his rival with the flames illuminating the startled expression on the blonde's face, "I warned you... I **warned** you not to do anything to them!" Remy shuffled backwards, eyes wide with fear.

"Not human! You're not human!" he stammered, "You're a monster! A freak!" Timmy shrieked in return, lifting his hands over his head as a swirling ball of tightly packed Fire and Light mana bloomed into existence between his palms.

_"I am **not** a **freak!"**_ he screamed and hurled the ball at the blonde.

"NO!" his cousin yelled, shooting up from the ground for the brunet. The flames spun outward, forcing him back before he could be burned. Wanda wailed out in horror as Juandissimo flew back, one arm lifted to protect his eyes from the brilliant explosion of fire and light. The ground quaked under the blow, making for difficult terrain to run on for the rest of Team Turner and Team Phantom trying to join them. They were sent sprawling from the force of the blast and a cloud of smoke, dust and ash settled over them. Caleb's wings immediately unfolded, flapping rapidly to whisk away the smog. Tootie murmured a wish to Romi, asking for the cloud to vanish.

When the area was clear once more, the two teams stared up at the young immortal as he stood impassively before a large crater in the ground. On the other side of it, Remy lay flat on his back, dazed. Juandissimo jumped and raced for him, helping him sit up as they both looked at the brunet in a mix of confusion and shock.

"I missed on purpose." Timmy finally said coldly, "Next time, I might not." He pointed at the gasping blonde near him. "Your life is tied to his. Chester dies; you die. To Hell with the both of us, but you'll get there first." he added and turned his back on the teen millionaire, "Now get out of here. The sight of you makes me more sick than these stupid Spires of yours." Remy and Juandissimo instantly vanished from the lot in a blast of purple smoke, unwilling to take the risk that he could be bluffing. Timmy finally sighed and sank to the concrete himself, curling up and shuddering almost violently.

"What the hell happened?" Sam cried in horror, the first voice to break the strained silence as Caleb and Tootie both ran to the brunet.

"Chester! Oh my God, what happened to him?" A.J. yelled out in alarm, racing to the blonde with Sanjay and Elmer at his sides. The Indian's hands flew up to his head as he wailed.

"No, no, no! Why must Shiva curse us with this? We lost our poor friend Timmy Turner! We cannot lose the one who took his place as Leader of the Others!" Sanjay cried as Elmer knelt by and fanned the blonde's face with his hat, "Elmer! Stupid boy! You do not use Timmy's cap as a resuscitation device!"

"Severe mana depletion. Several vital organs are probably failing." Caleb muttered curtly, scanning the convulsing teen, "Idiot; I told you not to use your personal mana for spells!" He looked up at Tootie. "Stay here and use your healing spells on him! Restore as much mana as you can!" he ordered.

"There's not enough around me to do that! We burned through most of it tagging the traps!" Tootie cried helplessly. The android dug into his pocket and pulled out the shimmering crystal he'd shown to Timmy. He handed it to her.

"Use this! Pull the mana from this crystal and pass it to him! We don't have much time!" he snapped, "Mana depletion of the level this complete **ass** managed to reach is fatal for even an immortal! Remember what his fairy said about the nullifier hall? About how his body would turn to dust if he lost a huge amount of magic and mana? He's reached that point again; give him a boost!"

"I'll help!" Wanda exclaimed, shooting down to land by her godchild, "Timmy, how could you do this to yourself? Oh, _sunu_, _cherishen sunu_!" She brushed his hair away from his face, then clutched her wand tightly in her hands. "Cosmo! Where are you? Timmy needs us!" she whispered tearfully as Tootie held out her dagger and began murmuring the incantation for _Cure_.

Trixie barely registered the red-haired android dropping beside her and Chester. This was all insanity. Fighting Remy, fighting the Spires; it was going to get them all killed. First Timmy, now Chester; how many more young lives were going to be sacrificed in the name of that brat trying to attain the title of Heart of Dimmsdale?

"Looks pretty bad." Caleb murmured, scanning the blonde lying before them, his head resting in her lap, "Is this the only serious injury he's gotten all night?"

"That's a stupid question to ask!" Tucker exclaimed hotly, "Does it matter? Just heal him!" The android glared up at him and the African-American teen backed off with a sheepish smile. "But then, what do **I** know? This is magic stuff we're talking about; I'm a techie through and through!" he amended quickly.

"**This** is why Timothy and I cast _Revive_ on all of you before you attempt anything that puts you near a Spire." Caleb told the group of teens and reached out to the buried sword, "On three." Team Turner watched apprehensively as the android began to count. "One... two..." He suddenly pulled the sword free, ignoring the collective cries of shock from the S-List teens. Chester yelped in pain, then fell limp, a bright flash of light erupting from the site of the wound.

"What the-?" A.J. exclaimed and reached out to poke at the tear in the shirt, "The injury's gone! What happened?"

"The spell _Revive_ is designed to prevent Death by absolving a person of one fatal wound." Caleb explained in exasperation, cleaning the scimitar off with a small cloth, "If a person has the spell active on them and they receive a fatal injury, like Chester here getting this dagger between the ribs, then it kicks in and restores them to perfect health, stopping Death before it even has the chance to realize someone was about to die. It can only do it once, but sometimes that's all you need to keep someone moving until you can dish out a second dose."

"Owww..." Chester groaned, drawing attention back to him, "Dude, you said on _three_...!"

"Kid, that trick's older than **me** and you people still fall for it every time." Caleb sighed, rolling his eyes and handing the sword back to Apollo, "Intelligent species, yeah, right." The blonde sat up, rubbing his chest where the blade had been as if to confirm that he really was whole, then yelped as the S-List group-hugged him tightly, chattering excitedly and with great relief over his recovery.

"Hey! Whoa! Come on! Dude's gotta breathe!" Chester exclaimed and cringed in reflex as Trixie threw her arms around him in the tightest hug of all.

"You had me worried sick, you stupid redneck!" she cried, "I honestly thought you were gonna die! Don't you ever do that to me again, or I'll have Apollo turn you into teddy bear!"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh!" the blonde stammered and got up with the help of the Others. He blinked as he caught sight of Timmy lying by a crater with Tootie and Wanda both pouring magic and mana back into him. "Hey! What the hell happened to Timothy?" he declared in alarm and ran up to the brunet with the rest of the teams following quickly.

"He blew another fuse when he saw what Remy did to you." A.J. told him, looking down at the young immortal as he breathed more easily, "I thought he was gonna make the whole place go nuclear just to get revenge, but he held back. Wonder why."

"Because I'm not stooping to his level." Timmy grumbled and opened his eyes, looking up at them. He blinked, then smiled in relief. "Chester... you're okay..."

"Yeah, man. _Revive_ spells really are handy, huh?" the blonde remarked brightly. The brunet blinked up at him in surprise, then turned a faint shade of red.

"So all that I did earlier was for nothing? There wasn't even anything to worry about?" Timmy whimpered, "Man, I am _really_ lousy at this Hero-ing thing!" The group laughed in collective relief as Tootie and Wanda pulled back on their magical infusions and helped Timmy stand. Looking around, they took in the sight of ruined pavement and asphalt where the aerial drones had fallen from high above when the servers crashed. They began to walk across the lot towards the Dark Spire, gazing at the destruction they had caused as a team. Wanda floated by Timmy, periodically checking the slowly brightening skies for her husband. Surely he had to be okay; he had dumb luck on his side and the units chasing him would have to have succumbed to the server crash as well.

Maybe he got distracted by a shiny nickel somewhere. She could only hope.

As they walked, they listened to the story of Chester's all-out melee on Remy before it was interrupted by the summoning of the Mars units and the removal of Chester's magitech armor. Caleb had not been amused by the loss of the armor and demanded that someone bring it back. Trixie volunteered for it and promptly wished for the suit to be returned to Chester. Once it was clad on him again, the blonde knocked his knuckles together and grinned. The battle had been fun, despite the near fatal ending. Already plans for the next Spire attack were being made.

"Not until we find a way to stop something like that from happening." Timmy pointed out sternly, "If Remy hadn't been able to wish away Chester's armor, he would never have gotten hurt in the first place! We've got to find some way of making our uniforms immune to his wishes too!" They stopped at the entrance to the Dark Spire and looked up at the tall building.

"Well, let's get started. There's nothing to worry about inside now." Danny Phantom remarked and floated past the group into the Spire. The group nodded and entered the building, collecting a small explosive from Caleb's travel bag as they passed him.

* * *

Master Control Spire~

Crocker chuckled and shook his head, pleased by the results of the attack on Spire Five. Though it didn't actually fall, the destruction of the main control system on its upper floors deemed it lost. However, the other Spires had already collected the data they needed and he was already planning a remedy for the weak system. Let the new Timmy come at him again and again; he would only make the path to his front steps more difficult with each Spire he faced. After all, true absolution would come when his opponent was fully empowered and ready to stand before him to pass judgment.

But first, Crocker had to have the power to grant his greatest wish. Before the Spire Server System shut down from the critical overload of data, it managed to send the report that it had successfully captured a fairy. However, the capture was probably lost in the city somewhere, as the system had failed and killed the victorious unit before command of the aerial device could be transferred to the Master Control Spire. Somewhere out there in Dimmsdale, a single fairy was exposed and godchild-less. If he was lucky, the little thing would be in one of the nullification zones. All Crocker would have to do was alert the other Spires to the fact that a fairy godparent was in their region and let them handle the recovery of the trophy.

Remy would have to learn of the lost Spire some other time; the retired teacher had other fish to fry.

"Fairies, fairies, fairies! Grant my single wish!" Crocker laughed, tapping at his keyboard, "Move Heaven and Hell, rip asunder the Earth, and bring Timmy Turner back from the dead! Restore the Heart of Dimmsdale, no matter the cost!"

* * *

Cosmo coughed once, then finally opened one eye slowly, looking out at the world around him. Everything hurt, from the ends of his hair to the tips of his toes; everything. He fluttered one wing, winced, then sighed. Even that hurt. He tried to remember what had happened to him.

* * *

The aerial capture unit had pinned him under the desk in that office building, spinning in place as it cornered him until he finally tripped over the rim of the net and tumbled in. The mesh caught on the edge of the glass shard, sending a fresh wave of pain through his shoulder. He yelped as the unit rolled out of the desk, an iris of metal sealing the lip of the net closed. It hovered into the air as the doors to the office opened and several security guards rushed into the room.

"What the hell? What the hell is that thing?" one barked out in astonishment, "Is that some kinda UFO?" Cosmo clawed at the net with his left arm, hoping to find a tear somewhere, anything that could let him rip open a larger hole in the mesh and let him tumble free. The unit swerved past the guards, rushing for one of the broken windows and escaping into the night. "Somebody get Chet Ubetcha on the phone! Dimmsdale's got alien invaders!" the guard yelled excitedly.

The aerial capture unit soared over the streets of Dimmsdale, red eye blinking with the signal transmissions. Cosmo sat within the confines of the net, partially curled as he clutched his wand in one hand. It was strange, feeling the night wind rushing by him and knowing it wasn't from his own flight. He sighed, wishing he had been smart enough to keep the Windcutter on him instead of poofing it into magic space. How were Wanda and Timmy doing now?

"Well, on the plus side, there's not gonna be an idiot holding them back." he murmured softly and chuckled. It was stupid, a flimsy piece of netting was all that kept him from escaping. No magic, no flight, no hope of getting free...

Was this the end of...?

Cosmo snapped to alertness, a sudden burst of mental clarity shooting into him. He straightened with a cry, then froze, unable to move as the tiny voice within him murmured softly, holding him prisoner in his own body until it finished its message. There was a way to get free, a way to escape, without the need of magic or the Windcutter. A smarter fairy would have seen it sooner; Cosmo needed this strange intuition, the voice that only spoke in his darkest moments, to tell him what to do, what to say.

_"The glass. Use the glass."_ And then it was gone, control of his body returned to him. Before the clarity faded completely, Cosmo reached back and grabbed the shard of mirror that remained embedded in his shoulder. Pulling it free with a yelp of pain, he brought it forward and studied it. It was sharp, bloodied, but it had a fine edge on it that hadn't been chipped when it hit him. It could work. He set the shard against the mesh and slid the glass along it. The string snapped and he smiled.

"Cool!" he yipped and repeated the motion, snapping another bit of the net. He continued slicing at the netting, whistling cheerfully. Six strings cut, and then something else, something far stronger than the little voice, took control of him. The 'Timmy Sense', as Wanda called it, a premonitory parental instinct.

Something was wrong.

Something terrible was happening, about to happen.

Clutching the shard of glass tightly enough to cut into his palm, he shrieked aloud in terror and pain.

_"TIMMY!"_

And the aerial unit suddenly dropped from the sky, red light winking out as it and the fairy plummeted to the streets below.

* * *

"Oh, yeah..." Cosmo breathed, fluttering his good wing once again, this time ignoring the pain, "That about sums it up." He glanced up at a nearby building, watching the sun slowly rising in its windows. Morning. A drop of water fell by him, then another. He blinked as one dropped near his eye and he sighed again. Rain. Joy. Exactly what he needed.

This wasn't good. Morning in Dimmsdale meant people would be waking up, getting ready for work, coming back from work, filling the streets and sidewalks. He would be seen, people would talk, humans that didn't need to know fairies existed would have that knowledge. He would be exposed and Timmy's mission would be destroyed.

"No, no, no..." Cosmo moaned softly, struggling to get up. Where was his wand? He needed to get it back, poof himself home, poof himself healthy... fairies healed quickly, but only if they had their wands in hand, had contact with the magic that fed through it into them from Fairy World. The aerial unit lay in its personal crater nearby, the net's handle broken off. Half-crawling, half-dragging himself through the hole he'd cut in the net, Cosmo set to searching for the wand. Had it somehow slipped through the opening during the fall?

A door opened with a creak and he fell still, shutting his eyes as his hand stretched out towards the sleek black handle of the star-topped wand nearby. Maybe if he faked being dead, he wouldn't be noticed? Soft patters of small feet, then the chill of a shadow falling over him and partially shielding him from the morning drizzle let him know that plan failed.

"Oh, wow...! A fairy...!" a young voice breathed in amazement and Cosmo felt a finger poke at him.

"Ow." he muttered before he could stop himself.

"Poor little guy. You have hurties, huh? Did this big thing here hurt you?" the voice whispered softly. Cosmo opened his eyes and twisted his head to look up at the source of the voice. A young girl, maybe three or four years old, blinked down at him with wide blue eyes, her tawny, almost blonde, hair tied up in tight little pigtails with pink ribbons. She was dressed in a pink nightgown, wearing a bright red jacket and hoodie. She poked at him again.

"Stop. Hurts." Cosmo whimpered, cringing and fluttering one wing. The girl looked saddened.

"Oh, poor fairy. Your wing is all tore up." she murmured and reached out to collect the wand herself. She turned to him again and carefully scooped him up into her arms, "I take care of you. You sleep in my baby's bed!" Cosmo managed a grin through the pain of moving as the toddler made her way back to the apartment building. Cute. Little kids were so innocent and trustworthy; he'd be safe from other humans and he'd have a little time to recover on his own before getting the wand back. "I thought you was a shooting star, but fairies are more nice! Mommy and Daddy are gonna be so-prized!"

"No!" the little fairy cried, mood shifting back to panic as the thought of what _that_ could do to him and his godchild's mission leaped back into his mind, "No adults! No grown-ups!" The girl paused on her way to the elevator, puzzled.

"Why?" she asked.

"I'll disappear if you tell any grown-ups about me." Cosmo murmured in a softly frantic voice, "No grown-ups, just you."

"Okay, Mister Fairy." the toddler replied cheerfully, "Shhh! Our secret!" She entered the elevator and set him down to reach the buttons. A jump and slap later, the lift was on its way up. She picked him up again and touched fingers to the injury on his back, wincing at his sharp cry. "Hurting bad on this one? Poor, poor fairy. I have band-aids; I'll make you better! The red stuff means it's icky hurty bad. You need band-aids for those hurties."

Cosmo sighed helplessly. At least he had a young child to help him. In the meantime, he could definitely use some rest. He murmured a soft wish for well-being for his wife and godchild, then closed his eyes, drifting towards a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Spire Five~

"Okay, my bomb's set! Is that the last one?" Timmy called out over the Phones. The two teams had spread throughout the interior of the Dark Spire, planting bombs at the weak points in the building. Caleb, A.J., and Tucker all ran for the rooms filled with technological devices, eager to tear through them and see what goodies could be obtained.

_"Everything clear for Team Phantom. Tucker! Get the hell out of that room! We're gonna blow this thing up anyway!"_ Danny yelled out in exasperation.

_"Team Turner, calling in! We're done and ready for demolition! A.J.! Come on, Dude! You already have files on all this junk, what do you need to grab **actual** units for?"_ Chester exclaimed.

_"Souvenirs."_ the super-genius returned. Timmy chuckled and shook his head. Just like the old days, only they had no idea who he truly was. He stood up and began to make his way out of the Spire, calling up the other members of the teams to be sure they were already clearing out as well.

Wanda looked worried, perched on his shoulder as she turned her wand over and over on the palm of one hand. He looked up at her, concerned about her tense silence since he was revived with her and Tootie's help. Not even an attempt at a comforting pat on her arm brought her out of her anxious state. Something was wrong, and it was weighing on her badly. If Wanda was listless, it was serious.

"Has Cosmo called in yet?" Timmy finally asked softly, emerging from the halls into the main entryway of the Spire. Wanda cracked, bursting into tears as she lifted her hands to hide her face, flitting off of his shoulder. "Wanda?"

"I call and I call and I don't get an answer!" she sobbed piteously, lifting her face to gaze tearfully at him, "Timmy, I don't know what's happened, but he's not responding!" The brunet stepped back, startled.

"What?" he exclaimed and touched fingers to the Fenton Phones himself, "Cosmo! Cosmo, come in! Can you hear me? Cosmo!" Static answered him, filling his ears with their harsh sound. "Cosmo! Answer me!" He looked frantically over at his fairy godmother. "Maybe the Spire is interfering with our signals? He's gotta be outside the tower, right? Maybe the walls are deflecting the Fenton Phones' signals?" he exclaimed in a panic.

"Try the armband! Use the locater in his wand!" Wanda blurted out as the other teenagers hurried out of the halls to join him. Timmy lifted his arm, ignoring the strange looks of his friends.

"Something happen?" Tootie asked worriedly, "What's wrong, Wanda?"

"Fairy wand locater! Locate subject, Cosmo Cosma!" Timmy declared, watching the virtual map bloom into the air.

"Cosmo's missing?" Apollo questioned in alarm, "I think I was the last one to see him! He was heading pretty high into the air with a whole lot of those anti-magic units tailing him!"

"Check it once we're out of here! The bombs are set and we don't want to be around when they go off!" Danny urged, pushing Sam and Tucker along. The teams nodded and raced out of the Dark Spire into the morning rain. Timmy kept his eyes on the virtual map as the tracking lines scanned the holographic globe. Wanda flew by him, hands held up in prayer before her mouth as her eyes shimmered with tears.

"Please, find him. Please, please!" she whispered, "Cosmo, where are you?"

A.J. looked back over his shoulder at the tower after several minutes of running, then slowed to a halt. The others skidded to a stop and gave him puzzled looks as he brought out a small tube from his belt and held it to his eye, studying the Spire.

"That looks about right. Okay, let's detonate it!" he declared and the android beside him took a deep breath, then called out towards the tower silently. "It must be cool to hit a sound frequency high enough to remote detonate charges." the super-genius sighed wistfully as the Spire's walls collapsed inward and brought the tower crumbling down.

"Fairy wand locater! Locate subject, Cosmo Cosma!" Timmy demanded of the Adventurer's Map 3000 once more. The globe refreshed and the scan began again. Wanda buried her face in her hands, sobbing as Apollo and Romi both tried to comfort her.

"This isn't good." Trixie mumbled softly, standing by Chester for warmth as she watched the brunet study the map intensely.

"Spire's down, it's cold and raining here, and I'm beat. Can we go home and sleep now?" Tucker asked, yawning and stretching his arms over his head before folding them down and hunching his shoulders protectively. Danny watched his cousin worriedly, shaking his head slowly as he went insubstantial to let the water pass through his body.

"No, something's wrong. Something's very wrong." he murmured.

Timmy glared at the globe hovering over his arm, scowling at the _'Subject Not Found'_ message that typed across the field, blinking water from his eyes as his hair clung to his face. No, it was a mistake; the stupid armband must have shorted out from exposure to the nullifiers again, the rain was screwing with its circuits. No way could it be telling him that message. Not with Wanda sobbing nearby like a widow, not with his heart twisting with a sick feeling far worse than what he would get near a pulsing nullifier.

"Fairy wand locater Locate subject, Cosmo Cosma. If you need additional information, here it is." he hissed under his breath, "Subject is fairy godfather to Timothy Tiberius Turner of Dimmsdale, California, banished from Fairy World in the year 2002, husband to Wanda Cosma, also banished from Fairy World. Locate subject **now**!"

The globe refreshed and the tracking lines searched again as the teams gathered around him, watching the hologram intensely, faces drawn with concern and worry. One minute passed, then another, then another. Time stretched on and still the globe spun slowly in the gray, dreary morning light, unresponsive.

"You stupid piece of junk! I'm **not** giving up on him! You're not trying hard enough!" Timmy snapped at the armband, "Are you even searching for him or are you just faking this whole lousy thing to make us snap?" A second text message tapped itself out across the holographic globe.

_"Passive Mode scan failure limit achieved. Initiating Active Mode scan. Contacting Fairy World Network for tower clearance. Please stand by."_ the Adventurer's Map 3000 displayed. The two teams blinked at the message as Timmy stared at it in confusion. Another minute passed and the message changed. _"Tower clearance granted. Accessing wand frequency for target subject, Cosmo Cosma._

_"..._

_"Wand frequency downloaded. Stand by for initiation of echolocation scan."_

"What the heck is it doing?" Timmy asked the group around him, baffled. A.J. studied the screen along with Tucker and Caleb.

"It was passively searching for Cosmo the whole time, and when it failed to find him, it switched to a more active search mode. I think it means that when it couldn't find him with the wand, it began to look for his wand only." A.J. remarked, "Logically speaking, if you can track down Cosmo's wand, then he can't be very far away from it, right?"

"It's downloaded a copy of the magic signature tied to Cosmo through his wand and now it's gonna use Fairy World's magic transfer system, its own towers, to ping the area for it." Tucker added, "If it touches on the wand and it pings back, the computers will pick it up and analyze the data to figure out where the ping came from. That's echolocation."

"The only problem with that is it's not always reliable." Caleb sighed, "It will locate his wand, if it's still out there and in one piece, but it's not a guarantee that Cosmo will be in the same condition and near it."

_"Initiating echolocation. Stand by for results."_ the Adventurer's Map announced and the two teams looked up to watch as shimmering waves of pale pink rushed down from beyond the clouds that brought the morning rain on the city. Invisible to all but those blessed with the ability to recognize fairy magic, the waves passed into Dimmsdale in a soft carpet bomb search for the missing fairy.

And in the distance, hidden among skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of the awakening population, a single stream of magic shot skyward, returning to the origin of the pulses. The armband's message changed again, displaying the results repeatedly as the group looked back at it.

_"Wand located for subject, Cosmo Cosma. Location: Dimmsdale, California, United States, North America, Earth. Exact coordinates, unknown. Residual anti-magical energy interfered with echolocation scan. Displaying closest range."_ it typed out, then wiped the virtual screen clean, bringing up a map of Dimmsdale and stamping a large section of the downtown district of the city with a golden star.

"It found his wand, but is he there with it?" Trixie questioned softly. Timmy studied the map intensely, a dreaded feeling settling in his stomach again.

"Dimmsdale map, maintain location of Cosmo's wand and display zones of magic and nullification fields." he ordered it and the virtual map took on the gold, gray and black colorings that charted the flow of magic in the city. "I knew that didn't feel right!" he exclaimed in alarm. The star was planted squarely within a section of the city that still was victim to a Dark Spire, surrounded by gray from the field under the control of a tower only a few miles away. "We've got to get him out of there!" Tootie held out her hand, placing it on his arm carefully.

"We'll help, but it might take a while. We need to rest first, then we can search." she told him, "It's good news at least. Where his wand is, Cosmo must be close by. And even **he** knows enough to stay out of sight and not do anything to call the attentions of fairy traps and stuff." Timmy blinked down at her, then nodded.

"All right. We'll rest for a few hours, then get to work on searching this part of Dimmsdale for Cosmo." he sighed in resignation, looking at the map, "He's my pal, and he might be kind of stupid, but I trust him to know to take care just long enough to be rescued." He managed a small grin, "I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"

"Don't jinx it." Chester muttered, folding his arms over his chest. The rain continued to beat down on Team Phantom and Team Turner as they hurried from the ruined lot. A new day dawned for Dimmsdale as the third Spire had finally fallen after a fierce fight and days of searching for answers. But with a vital member of the team missing and the knowledge that Crocker was still on the hunt for fairy magic haunting them, how much longer could they go on, escaping cruel fates by aid of miracles that seemed to weaken with each victory over the combined forces of Remy Buxaplenty and Denzel Q. Crocker?

The End

Episode 1: Act 2


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